
Book . » L> ( 

Copyrights? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY: 



HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL. 



& Jftamtal for tije people. 



BY 

W". J. COLVILLE, 

Author or '* Spiritual Therapeutics," Etc. 



" There is no Religion higher than Truth." 

— Motto of the Theosophical Society, 



BOSTON : 
COLBY & KICH, PUBLISHEKS, 

9 Bosworth Street. 
1890. 







Y\ 









•c 7 



Copyright, 1889, 

Bt W. J. COLVILLE. 
70PY 
"LIED FROM 
SIGHT FILEU 
I *, i§ti. 



Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston. 
Presmvokk bt Bxbwick & fciMiTU, Boston. 



PREFACE. 



In presenting to the world a popular treatise on 
Theosophy, the author, who is in some respects merely 
an amanuensis and in others a compiler, desires to offer 
to the reading public, in portable form and at moderate 
price, a work which shall, in spite of many obvious limi- 
tations, possess the following advantages : — 

1st. Lucidity of statement, conciseness of style, and 
freedom from all unnecessary use of technical or foreign 
terms. 

2d. A systematic and orderly review of the Theo- 
sophic teachings of many of the world's greatest teachers 
of ancient and modern times, and notably an impartial 
presentation of the views of great bodies of religionists 
and philosophers whose theories have frequently been 
misstated or criticised in an unfriendly spirit. 

3d. A practical digest of the teachings of Universal 
Theosophy and an application of these to the great 
industrial, social, and religious problems of the present 
day. 

4th. Practical advice and direction to students seek- 
ing to translate theory into practice, and express in 
some measure, in their own lives, the truth so easily 
and frequently stated orally and on paper. 



4 PREFACE. 

5th. Reviews of current Theosophical and kindred 
literature in the form of short sketches or digests of 
the contents of such publications, designed for the two- 
fold purpose of calling attention to increasing interest 
in such works, through extending a knowledge of them, 
and to help busy people who have little opportunity for 
extensive reading to get as much information as possi- 
ble during their limited periods of leisure. 

The following essays and reviews have been prepared 
amid a multiplicity of other engagements ; no claim is 
made for perfection of literary style nor for exhaustive- 
ness in treatment. Such a book as the one now offered, 
many people have long felt to be in demand; and in 
response to numerous and urgent requests it has now 
been compiled and thrown upon the sea of public ap- 
proval or criticism, to meet whatever fate may be its 
destiny. As an evidence of the interest taken in it 
prior to publication, it need only be stated that consid- 
erably more than 1000 copies were ordered and paid 
for before the manuscript was placed in the publishers' 
hands ; by this means the entire cost of production was 
defrayed in advance by the concerted action of confid- 
ing subscribers. All who thus secured its production 
and freedom from liability received their copies before 
the book was placed in the general market. A sec- 
ond edition from electroplates is now being prepared, 
which will be offered to the world at large, at $1.50 per 
copy, post free, or 6s. in England. As soon as the de- 
mand warrants the issue of a very large edition, thereby 
greatly reducing the cost per copy, the price will be per- 
manently fixed at $1.00 in America, 4s. in England and 



PREFACE. 5 

the Colonies, thereby placing it at half the usual price 
for a book of similar size and style in the hands of all 
interested. Hoping it may do somebody some good, it 
is trustingly committed to the world by the compiler, 

W. J. COLVILLE. 

N. B. The twenty-four lectures which constitute a considerable 
portion of this book were originally delivered inspiration ally by 
W. J. Colville to classes in San Francisco and other cities. As 
a great desire was expressed by numerous persons who attended 
them, for their publication, reports were taken from time to time, 
which were subsequently revised and altered whenever necessary 
to adapt them for permanent reading. 



CONTENTS, 



■•♦♦- 



LECTURE I. page 

Theosopht: what it is, and what it is not 9 

LECTURE II. 
The Teachings of Theosopht, as promulgated by the Theo- 
sophical Society, considered in a Review of a widely 
circulating pamphlet 22 

LECTURE m. 
The Work and Possibilities of the Theosophical Society 
and its Branches , 40 

LECTURE IV. 
Miracles and Modern Thought 54 

LECTURE V. 
Egyptian Theosophy 68 

LECTURE VI. 
Egyptian Theosophy (continued). — The Great Pyramid . . 86 

LECTURE VII. 
Atlantis 102 

LECTURE VIII. 
Fragments of Forgotten History; or, Atlantis " recon- 
structed " 130 

LECTURE IX. 
Oriental Theosophy. — Brahmanism and Buddhism . . . 157 



LECTURE X. 

ady of the SouP 
Repeated Earthly Experiences 174 



Through the Ages. A Study of the Soul's Progression through 



8 CONTENTS. 

LECTURE XI. page 

A Further Study of Embodiment. — The Law op Karma 

(Sequence), and how it operates in Daily Life . . . 198 

LECTURE XII. 
The Mystery of the Ages. — The Secret Doctrine con- 
tained in All Religions 230 

LECTURE XIII. 
Persian, Greek, and Roman Theosophy 254 

LECTURE XIV. 
Chinese Theosophy. — Confucianism 271 

LECTURE XV. 
Electrical Christian Theosophy ; Electricity the Basis 

of Life ; an Electric Creed ; Electrical Therapeutics, 297 

LECTURE XVI. 
Theism, Spiritualism, and Theosophy : their Essential 
Agreement and Necessary Union 343 

LECTURE XVII. 
The Attitude of Theosophy toward Spiritualism and All 
the Great Religions of the World 366 

LECTURE XVIII. 
Theosophy, Spiritualism, and Christianity 388 

LECTURE XIX. 
Why are there Contradictory Teachings through Me- 
diums ? — What is the True Standard of Authority?. 408 

LECTURE XX. 
Ingersollism and Theosophy. — Colonel Ingersoll's Creed, 431 

LECTURE XXL 
" Robert Elsmere "j or, the Old Fetters and the New Faith, 455 

LECTURE XXII. 
Christ re-conceived; or, the Basis of the New Religion . 475 



APPENDIX 48 



LECTURE I. 

THEOSOPHY: WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT. 

At a time when Theosophy is being most absurdly 
identified in the public mind with a special idea of 
Hinduism, it seems the plain duty of those who know 
better, to speak out boldly and with no uncertainty of 
tone in explanatory defence of the great movement 
known as Theosophical, now inviting the world to a 
fuller understanding, than has heretofore been practical, 
of the various outward forms and systems in which the 
one essential truth of religion has manifested its spirit 
through the ages. To those of our readers who have 
not made etymology a study, we would particularly 
emphasize the right use of the word religion, which 
means union, righteousness, co-operation, and a great 
deal more which is thoroughly practical, and indeed 
essential to human welfare. 

Free religion may be said to mean religion untram- 
melled by creeds and dogmas, which, in the very nature 
of things, are not susceptible of absolute, or indeed 
sufficient verification to commend them as certainties 
to an intelligent mind. Matthew Arnold, one of the 
greatest literary lights of the present century, was 
never tired of enforcing his favorite proposition, that 
religion really means righteousness ; and that, as this is 



10 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

so, it behooves all men who have an eye to the general 
welfare of humanity, to hold together as much as pos- 
sible in support of all institutions which are on the side 
of the higher nature of man. Arnold, being an Eng- 
lishman, and a patriotic Englishman, naturally felt 
a warm affection for English institutions, and thus 
worked diligently in the interests of the Established 
Church; though in many if not all his essays he has 
put a construction upon the Hebrew and Christian 
Scriptures, and the object and meaning of church ordi- 
nances, entirely at variance with popular tradition. 

We mention Arnold, as he is a well-known author, 
deservedly respected by reason of his general fairness, 
breadth, and liberality (though, unfortunately, he is 
neither fair, broad, nor liberal in his summary dismissal 
of Spiritualism), only as an example of the tone adopted 
toward religion by men of culture, who in a great gen- 
eral way are disposed to treat all matters without 
prejudice or undue bias. Those who oppose religion 
violently are almost invariably destitute of any ap- 
proach to genuine culture ; or, if literary and scholarly, 
they are so violently led by passion or strong feeling as 
to become victims of emotion rather than calm delib- 
erators in the open court of general appeal. For bigots 
and partisans we do not attempt to write, nor are we 
anxious to address them or converse with them at any 
time on subjects of moment to humanity, for the simple 
reason that they are determined to see only one side of 
any question. Such people may be fervidly religious 
or flagrantly irreligious, in the popular acceptation of 
those words ; but in either case prejudice blinds them ; 



LECTURE I. 11 

they are convinced that all truth is in some one narrow 
system of their own ; and while they prate of science, 
they are hopeless sophists or sciolists, undertaking most 
irrationally to force upon the world one system of 
thought only, and that system one so exclusive as to 
condemn probably ninety-nine per cent of the human 
family either to the hell of orthodoxy or the society of 
fools and knaves which constitutes the Tartarus of the 
heterodox. 

Now for any one to come to the study of Theosophy 
pre-determined to prove one system of religion all right 
and other systems all wrong, is for him to so disqualify 
himself for the task before him as to make his study 
useless. We therefore appeal only to the fair-minded 
and liberal, and these we address with the certain con- 
viction that they will not object to the motto, " There 
is no religion higher than truth." But what is Truth ? 
Pilate is not dead yet ; his modern representatives are 
still asking the same old question, and, unfortunately, 
those of Pilate's ilk (or perhaps fortunately) may go 
on asking it as long as they are of the mental fibre of 
Pilate, to the end of any number of ages or worlds, and 
still receive no answer from those who have the knowl- 
edge of truth within them. 

This statement may seem confounding to many, but 
those whom it is likely to confound have not studied 
the Pilate nature, which is by no means an attractive 
or lovely one. Pilate is not even an honest curiosity- 
seeker ; he is not simply inquisitive ; surely he is a 
traitor to conviction, a spurner of divine voices, an 
open disregarder of heavenly messages; in a word, a 



12 STUDIES IN THE0S0PHY. 

selfish, scheming, hypocritical demagogue, who puts his 
private interest before all justice, and willingly con- 
demns the innocent to death, so that he may curry 
favor with the rulers of the earth. His own wife points 
out to him the danger and iniquity of his way. His 
conscience indorses all she says to him, but he seeks to 
evade conscience by washing his hands, and after delib- 
erately grieving the Spirit, impertinently sneers forth 
the question, which from his lips is an audacious insult, 
"What is Truth?" 

Those who would receive reply to this all-important 
query must not think that truth can be had for the 
asking, by those who if they got it would only trample 
on it, or at best pervert it to their selfish and ungodly 
ends. Truth is a prize to be won only by those who 
seek it with a view to use it wisely when they have 
procured it, and we therefore unhesitatingly conclude 
and announce that truth never will become public 
property or be anything like universally dispersed, 
till the great masses of mankind are desirous of lay- 
ing aside selfishness, and ceasing from competition, 
learn to co-operate for each other's good in all things. 
Theosophy, which simply means divine wisdom, incul- 
cates one dogma, and that is, The universal broth- 
erhood or man. No one can be admitted into the 
Theosophical Society who does not profess this one 
great article of faith. All other points are secondary ; 
this alone is fundamental and essential. Now that 
Edward Bellamy's glorious book, " Looking Backward," 
is circulating by thousands and tens of thousands of 
copies, and clubs are forming everywhere for the dis- 



LECTURE I. 13 

semination of co-operative ideas and the practicalization 
of co-operative principles, the time is fully ripe for a 
clear, concise statement of Theosophical teachings. 

In this series of lectures or articles we propose for 
the special assistance of busy people who have little 
time to read large and numerous works on the subject, 
to present as well as we can, in brief abstract, an epit- 
ome of the teachings of the world's renowned sages, 
ancient and modern ; and at the same time pay merited 
tribute to many lesser lights, less well-known names 
who have identified or are still identifying themselves 
with the onward march of progress. The constitution 
of the Theosophical Society recommends that truth 
shall be allowed to dawn gradually upon the race. It 
discourages all ambitious attempts at proselyting, and 
affirms, with regard to those who are satisfied with their 
present religious convictions, that they are probably 
partaking of the aliment best adapted to their immedi- 
ate needs. But who can fail to meet with more or less 
of that increasingly vast army of eagerly inquiring souls 
who are not content with what they receive, either 
through the channel of popular religion or scientific 
agnosticism ? This multitude must be fed, or they will 
perish. They are the hungry and thirsty ones who cry 
loudly, incessantly, for living bread and water, and to dis- 
regard their cry or tell them to be content with what can- 
not satisfy their appetite for truth, is cruel and culpable. 

It is stated in many quarters that there are mystic 
brotherhoods in the East and also in Europe, composed 
of men who have gained wondrous insight into the laws 
and forces of the universe, but that these Mahatmas, as 



14 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

they are often styled, are unwilling to reveal their 
knowledge to the multitude. We doubt very much if 
the latter portion of that statement is correct ; we 
would rather institute a parallel by way of explanation. 
A professor of mathematics, for example, knows exactly 
how to solve many very difficult problems pertaining to 
the higher mathematics. Some schoolboys not yet fully 
conversant with simple fractions urge him to tell them 
how to solve one of the most difficult problems known 
to mathematical science. What reply must he make to 
their request ? Two, and only two, courses are open 
to him. He can refuse to comply with it, and thereby 
enkindle their ire ; or he can waste time by working it 
all out on a blackboard under their very eyes, they, 
meanwhile, stolidly gazing with open-mouthed curiosity, 
but failing utterly to comprehend the demonstration. 
To refuse their request is economical; to grant it is 
wasteful of time and energy. If he choose the former 
and not the latter course, he should give them his rea- 
son for refusal, by informing them that they need to go 
through a course of preparatory training, which he has 
been through already, before they can comprehend the 
solution. Then, when they are ready to enter his class, 
he will gladly instruct them. 

It is with the Mahatmas, as it is with the higher 
intelligences, familiar by name at least to all Spirit- 
ualists ; angels from celestial heights of attainment do 
not make a noise moving furniture from place to place, 
or alphabetically spelling out messages through a table 
or talking-board, nor do they respond to mercenary and 
trivial inquiries regarding business and the details of 



LECTURE I. 15 

earthly affairs in general. Some answer we do get to 
all the questions we propound. Some force does mani- 
fest itself, no matter in what spirit or with what intent 
we singly inquire or gather together ; but is it rational 
to presume, is it not rather the height of folly to imag- 
ine, that trivial minds with trivial ends in view can 
summon the brightest intellects in the universe to 
chatter platitudes with them ; and is it not an impudent 
blasphemy to imagine that souls interested in the wel- 
fare of all humanity on the highest spiritual plane, will 
dance attendance on the would-be gambler in stocks or 
purchaser of a prize-winning lottery ticket ? Yet such 
are the stupid puerilities manifested by some people 
calling themselves Spiritualists from day to day, that 
we hardly wonder at the ill odor Spiritualism is in, in 
some communities where these abound or shove them- 
selves to the front as organizers and dictators. Such 
men as the justly revered Prof. Henry Kiddle of New 
York and other estimable Spiritualists have happily 
been as severe as reason demands in denunciation of 
such idiocy. 

Theosophy and Spiritualism are essentially one and 
inseparable, and as to Christian Science and all allied 
systems of thought and practice, they are but sectional 
extensions of one and the same root idea. Our object 
is to overcome the sectarian spirit in our students, and 
we know that whenever a university is in operation 
which can meet the real demands of the age for spirit- 
ual and moral enlightenments, no such hair-splitting as 
now prevails will be permissible or possible. But, say 
many of our questioners and correspondents, Spiritual- 



16 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

ists believe in many spirits, Christian Science acknowl- 
edges but one Spirit; Theosophy teaches final extinction 
of individuality, while Spiritualism insists upon its end- 
less perpetuation : how can you in the face o£ these 
glaring contradictions declare that the three systems 
are essentially one ? 

Our unequivocal and decidedly undismayed answer 
to all these queries and questioners is, that the ques- 
tioners in the case take a painfully superficial view of 
the subjects on which they express views or seek en- 
lightenment. Apparent contradictions may not be in 
the least contradictory, or even paradoxical, when looked 
at more closely and examined more searchingly ; and 
in the case before us we see no obstacle in the way of a 
perfect reconciliation of these at first sight diametrically 
opposite statements. The declaration, there is but one 
Spirit, does not at all imply that the individuality or, 
at least, the identity (a better and higher word) of each 
Spiritual entity is not eternal. One spirit, one life, 
one substance, one nature, and only one, means that 
there are not two or more essential constitutions of 
things, that all heterogeneity is reducible to homo- 
geneity, and thus all human beings are brothers and 
sisters in the fullest meaning of those familiar words. 
Universal brotherhood, which is the basis of Theosophy 
and without which the very attempt to practise M Chris- 
tian Science Mind Healing " is farcical, can be logically 
deduced and scientifically demonstrated, if we can 
prove that we are all of one spirit, essence, or nature ; 
a statement only tantamount to the declaration, " All 
men are born free and equal," or to such a saying as 



LECTURE I. 17 

" You are as good as I am, and I am as good as you 
are." A common base on which all nature rests de- 
clares all men brothers, all women sisters ; it denies 
away, i.e. effectually removes, vanquishes, overcomes, 
hostility between man and man, nation and nation ; 
it strips us of false pride and causes us to think of our- 
selves no more highly and no more lowly than we ought 
to think, by disposing us to an equal regard one for 
another. 

Again we reiterate our primal conclusion : the base of 
Theosophy is brotherhood, and only brotherhood. It 
may use the three immortal watchwords of freedom, 
liberty, equality, fraternity, and give to them an ex- 
tended meaning which politics can never grasp. In 
the next place we shall do well to consider that there 
is not a scrap of evidence that extinction of the lower 
selfhood ever signified loss of identity to any profound 
or penetrative mind. A belief in the ultimate suspen- 
sion of individual consciousness is a vulgar conceit of 
the ignorant with no more justification in the Vedas 
than in the New Testament, both of which compilations 
or literatures have much to say of two selves, — one, the 
(lower) mortal, the other (higher), immortal. Both 
agree that we lose the lower in the higher, or we are 
warned there is at least a temporal if not an eternal 
danger of our losing the higher through an over-culti- 
vation and exercise of the lower. Now Theosophy, or 
Divine Wisdom, whose ways are the only paths of 
pleasantness and peace in the true sense, says before 
all else that we should cultivate the divine principle of 
our humanity : to do this successfully many teachers 



18 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

have insisted we must wage strenuous and incessant 
warfare against the lower appetites. The most enlight- 
ened teachers in their most luminous moods have, how- 
ever, always insisted upon the culture of the higher 
principle, saying and thinking but very little of the 
lower, and it is at this point that Theosophy introduces 
to us a true basis and right method of education. Dr. 
J. R. Buchanan, a renowned anthropologist, now resi- 
dent in Boston, in his admirable work "The New Edu- 
cation," very wisely places the higher education, i.e. 
moral and spiritual culture, in the front rank, giving 
a secondary place to what is simply educational and 
mechanical. Herbert Spencer assigns to the higher 
faculties about equal prominence. Both these able and 
distinguished men therefore testify to the necessity for 
cultivating the interior or sublimer nature as the para- 
mount duty of man. 

Now it is quite possible to use such words or terms 
as self-sacrifice, abnegation, surrender, denial, mortifica- 
tion, etc., far too often. The painful insistance with 
which many people of the best, intentions dwell upon 
these gloomy terms, makes us long to give them Watts* 
exquisite and truthful couplet, — 

44 Religion never was designed 
To make our pleasures less," — 

as a formula for daily and thrice daily use ; and to 
those who incline too strongly to certain ritualistic 
observances of the ancient Yoga type, other equally 
well-known and valuable words of the same author may 
be aptly applied. 



LECTURE I. 19 

" For Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do." 

No tendency can be sadder, no sophistry more specious 
and dangerous, than such teaching as throws the mind in 
upon itself, to brood over its own weaknesses and taint. 
Children are far too frequently brought up in idle- 
ness, and thus led into temptation by their parents and 
teachers, instead of from evil, by reason of the dark 
and hateful pessimism which teaches so much concern- 
ing original sin and the innate wickedness of human 
nature, that the very effort to stifle error and resist the 
devil gives power to the lowest impulses. The history 
of religious fanaticism furnishes abundant illustration 
of this ever-recurring fact in human experience. Many 
and many have been the men and women who have 
sought refuge from the devil (their own lower nature 
and what it attracts and affiliates with) in some monas- 
tery or convent, and there they have had a far harder 
fight with the adversary than they would have had, had 
they remained outside the bars and done their work in 
the world. Some verses from Keble's "Christian Year," 
exactly apply to such erroneous judgments. That 
healthy, vigorous English churchman sings : — 

" We need not bid for convent cell 
Our kindred and our homes farewell, 
Nor strive to wind ourselves too high 
For mortal man beneath the sky. 
The common round, the trivial task, 
Will furnish all we need to ask, — 
Room to deny ourselves ; a road 
To bring us daily nearer God." 



20 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

But it may be urged in reply to this summarizing, 
Keble was speaking for the rule, not for the exception, 
and we who seek special communion with the divine in 
sacred solitude are part of the exception to the general 
rule. If Keble marks out the way of the command- 
ments for the many, is there not a way of counsels also 
for the few, of which he says nothing ? The reply to 
this kind of reasoning is, that the very people who are 
most unusually anxious to escape the ordinary path of 
duty are those who are afraid of its difficulties and 
temptations, and whose motive in seeking out a special 
road is that they may escape ordinary trials. These 
are least of all prepared to tread a higher, steeper, more 
difficult way. They are like the boys who want the 
higher mathematics before they have mastered simple 
fractions. There is a motive, but only one, which can 
make a career of extraordinary isolation safe for any 
one, and that motive is the highest conceivable one by 
which any human being can be actuated, viz., a supreme 
desire to be of the greatest possible service to others, 
quite regardless of any happiness or profit which may 
accrue to oneself by acting thus unselfishly. Persons 
engaged in spiritual healing, who are more than usually 
disinterested in the performance of their work, under- 
stand, no doubt, what we mean by going out of the 
world for the purpose of working most efficiently for 
it and in it. Such persons can safely trust themselves 
out of the beaten track where the throng travels, but 
for the bulk of mankind " Go home " is a more appli- 
cable gospel saying than " Forsake all and follow me," 
though the spirit of the two is identical. 



LECTURE I. 21 

Theosophy, as a practical guide of life, a universal 
religion, is utterly non-partisan and non-sectarian ; tow- 
ering above Paine's immortal words, " The world is my 
country," it places the motto of the Home College of 
Spiritual Science in San Francisco, " The Universe is 

our Home." In that sentence the idea of universal 

« 

brotherhood is accurately stated. 



LECTURE II. 

THE TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY, AS PROMULGATED 
BY THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, CONSIDERED IN A 
REVIEW OF A WIDELY CIRCULATING PAMPHLET. 

In our first article of this series we made no effort 
to do more than simply and briefly present, as tersely 
as possible, what we understand Theosophy to be and 
not to be ; and while no society is in the least responsi- 
ble for anything we write or say, our utterances being 
entirely untrammelled and in no sense ex officio, we 
still desire to pay to the Theosophical Society a proper 
tribute of polite recognition. By such recognition we 
neither pledge ourselves or others to an indorsement 
of the theories entertained in the documents we refer 
to. All our aim is to let our readers know for them- 
selves just what the Theosophical Society is publishing, 
so that when statements of an injurious and misleading 
character are made the answer may be at once forth- 
coming. No society is infallible, and to expect infalli- 
bility at the hands of the members of any organization 
is preposterous ; and, moreover, what is most important 
for all to realize is, that truth is its own exponent and 
defendant. Weak and bitter censuring of individuals 
is as ridiculous as profane, and only when the public 
mind is superior to being moved by base insinuations 



LECTURE II. 23 

or open accusations against individuals, will ideas have 
a chance to present themselves and be fairly discussed 
in open court. Personalities will not enter into this 
work, — at all events no offensive personalities will be 
permitted ; and though in our journal, The Problem of 
Life, we may sometimes be compelled to answer attacks 
made by individuals upon individuals, our answering 
policy will be to present ideas and statements for what 
they are worth, without regarding the source whence 
they emanated, which frequently, in the case of the 
noblest things ever written, is historically ambiguous. 

Our present effort is an attempt to review, and ex- 
pound to some extent, a circular issued some time ago 
for the purpose of assimilating the popular mind with 
some of the most generally accepted conclusions of 
Theosophists. It is entitled, "An Epitome of Theoso- 
phy." As we cannot condense or abbreviate its state- 
ments without beclouding some of the ideas, we herewith 
present the distinctly doctrinal portion of it to our 
readers,, feeling certain it will instruct and interest all 
of them: — 

Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial 
time. It offers us a theory of nature and of life which is founded 
upon knowledge acquired by the Sages of the past, more especially 
those of the East ; and its higher students claim that this knowl- 
edge is not something imagined or inferred, but that it is seen and 
known by those who are willing to comply with the conditions. 
Some of its fundamental propositions are : — 

1. That the spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of 
his being; the rest of his nature being variously compounded, 
and decay being incident to all composite things, everything 
in man but his spirit is impermanent. 



24 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Further, that the universe being one thing and not diverse, 
and everything within it being connected with the whole and 
with every other, of which upon the upper plane above re- 
ferred to there is a perfect knowledge, no act or thought 
occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving 
and noting it. Hence all are inseparably bound together by 
the tie of Brotherhood. 

2. That below the spirit and above the intellect is a plane of con- 

sciousness in which experiences are noted, commonly called 
man's " spiritual nature " ; this is as susceptible of culture as 
his body or his intellect. 

3. That this spiritual culture is only attainable as the grosser 

interests, passions, and demands of the flesh are subordi- 
nated to the interests, aspirations, and needs of the higher 
nature ; and that this is a matter of both system and estab- 
lished law. 

4. That men thus systematically trained attain to clear insight 

into the immaterial, spiritual world, their interior faculties 
apprehending Truth as immediately and readily as physical 
faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those 
of reason ; and hence that their testimony to such Truth is 
as trustworthy as is that of scientists or philosophers to truth 
in their respective fields. 

5. That in the course of this spiritual training such men acquire 

perception of and control over various forces in Nature 
unknown to others, and thus are able to perform works 
usually called " miraculous," though really but the result of 
larger knowledge of natural law. 

6. That their testimony as to super-sensuous truth, verified by 

their possession of such powers, challenges candid examina- 
tion from every religious mind. 

Turning now to the system expounded by these Sages, we find 
as its main points : — 

1. An account of cosmogony, the past and future of this earth and 
other planets, the evolution of life through mineral, vegetable, 
animal, and human forms. 



LECTURE II. 26 

2. That the affairs of this world and its people are subject to 

cyclic laws, and that during any one cycle the rate or quality 
of progress appertaining to a different cycle is not possible. 

3. The existence of a universally diffused and highly ethereal me- 

dium, called the " Astral Light " or " Akasa," which is the 
repository of all past, present, and future events, and which 
records the effects of spiritual causes and of all acts and 
thoughts from the direction of either spirit or matter. It 
may be called the Book of the Recording Angel. 

4. The origin, history, development, and destiny of mankind. 

Upon the subject of Man it teaches : — 

1 . That each spirit is a manifestation of the One Spirit, and thus 

a part of all. It passes through a series of experiences in 
incarnation, and is destined to ultimate reunion with the 
Divine. 

2. That this incarnation is not single but repeated, each individ- 

uality becoming re-embodied during numerous existences in 
successive races and planets, and accumulating the expe- 
riences of each incarnation towards its perfection. 

3. That between adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements are 

first purged away, comes a period of comparative rest and 
refreshment, the spirit being therein prepared for its next 
advent into material life. 

4. That the nature of each incarnation depends upon the merit 

and demerit of the previous life or lives, upon the way in 
which the man has lived and thought ; and that this law is 
inflexible and wholly just. 

5. That " Karma," — a term signifying two things, the law of 

ethical causation (Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap), and the balance or excess of merit or demerit 
in any individual, determines also the main experiences of 
joy and sorrow in each incarnation, so that what men call 
" luck " is in reality " desert," — desert acquired in past 
existence. 

6. That the process of evolution up to reunion with the Divine, 

contemplates successive elevations from rank to rank of 



26 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

power and usefulness, the most exalted beings still in the 
flesh being known as Sages, Rishees, Brothers, Masters, their 
great function being the preservation at all times, and, when 
cyclic laws permit, the extension, of spiritual knowledge and 
influence among humanity. 
7. That when union with the Divine is effected, all the events and 
experiences of each incarnation are known. 

As to the process of spiritual development it teaches : — 

1 . That the essence of the process lies in the securing of supremacy 

to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's nature. 

2. That this is obtained along four lines, among others, — 

(a) The eradication of selfishness in all forms, and the culti- 

vation of broad, generous sympathy in and effort for the 
good of others. 

(b) The cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by meditation, 

communion with the Divine, and exercise. 

(c) The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower, ma- 

terial interests being deliberately subordinated to the 
behests of the spirit. 

(d) The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's 

station in life, without desire for reward, leaving results 
to Divine law. 

3. That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by all 

religiously disposed men, a yst higher plane of spiritual 
attainment is conditioned upon a specific course of training, 
physical, intellectual, and spiritual, by which the internal 
faculties are first aroused and then developed. 

4. That an extension of this process is reached in Adeptship, an 

exalted stage, attained by laborious self-discipline and hard- 
ship, protracted through possibly many incarnations, and 
with many degrees of initiation and preferment, beyond 
which are yet other stages ever approaching the Divine. 

As to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts : — 

1. That the process is entirely within the individual himself, the 
motive, the effort, the result being distinctly personal. 



LECTURE II. 27 

2. That, however personal and interior, this process is not unaided, 
being possible, in fact, only through close communion with 
the Supreme Source of all strength. 

As to the degree of advancement m incarnations it holds : — 

1. That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic 

truth has great value in fitting the individual for a step 
upwards in his next earth -life, as it gives an impulse in that 
direction . 

2. That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety, and 

beneficence. 

3. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive and de- 

voted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore stated. 

It may be added that Theosophy is the only system of religion 
and philosophy which gives satisfactory explanation of such prob- 
lems as these : — 

1. The object, use, and inhabitation of other planets than this 

earth. 

2. The geological cataclysms of earth ; the frequent absence of 

intermediate types in its fauna ; the occurrence of architec- 
tural and other relics of races now lost, and as to which 
ordinary science has nothing but vain conjecture ; the nature 
of extinct civilizations and the causes of their extinction ; 
the persistence of savagery and the unequal development of 
existing civilization ; the differences, physical and internal, 
between the various races of men ; the line of future devel- 
opment. 

3. The contrasts and unisons of the world's faiths, and the com- 

mon foundation underlying them all. 

4. The existence of evil, of suffering, and of sorrow, — a hopeless 

puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian. 

5. The inequalities in social condition and privilege ; the sharp 

contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence and stu- 
pidity, culture and ignorance, virtue and vileness; the 
appearance of men of genius in families destitute of it, as 
well as other facts in conflict with the law of heredity ; the 



28 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

frequent cases of unfitness of environment around individ- 
uals, so sore as to embitter disposition, hamper aspiration, 
and paralyze endeavor ; the violent antithesis between char- 
acter and condition ; the occurrence of accident, misfortune, 
and untimely death ; — all of them problems solvable only 
by either the conventional theory of Divine caprice or the 
Theosophic doctrines of Karma and Re-incarnation. 

6. The possession by individuals of psychic powers, — clairvoy- 

ance, clair audience, etc., as well as the phenomena of 
psychometry and statuvolism. 

7. The true nature of genuine phenomena in Spiritualism, and the 

proper antidote to superstition and to exaggerated expecta- 
tion. 

8. The failure of conventional religions to greatly extend their 

areas, reform abuses, reorganize society, expand the idea of 
brotherhood, abate discontent, diminish crime, and elevate 
humanity ; and an apparent inadequacy to realize in indi- 
vidual lives the ideal they professedly uphold. 

The above is a sketch of the main features of Theosophy, the 
Wisdom-Religion. Its details are to be found in the rapidly grow- 
ing literature upon the subject. 

The Theosophical Society is an association formed in 1875 with 
three aims, — to be the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood ; to pro- 
mote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions, 
and sciences ; to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the 
psychical powers latent in man. Adhesion to the first only is 

A PREREQUISITE TO MEMBERSHIP, THE OTHERS BEING OPTIONAL. 

The Society represents no particular creed, is entirely unsectarian, 
and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from each mem- 
ber that toleration of the beliefs of others which he desires them 
to exhibit towards his own. 

After reading this somewhat elaborate enumeration 
of commonly accepted beliefs among Theosophists, the 
liberal-minded reader must be refreshed and delighted 
with the closing extract we have given, and especially 



LECTURE II. 29 

with the clause we have italicized ; for, did the Theo 
sophical Society demand adhesion to all the points of 
the circular, it would necessarily bar out many of the 
yery most desirable persons who might otherwise seek 
admission to it. We must never forget that between 
the one essential dogma of universal brotherhood, and 
the almost innumerable tentative hypotheses put for- 
ward in the circular, there is no necessary ground of 
common consent. For example, we can hardly see how 
any Nationalist, or indeed any person admiring the 
views put forward by Edward Bellamy in " Looking 
Backward," can possibly dissent from the obligatory 
article in the creed of Theosophy. We can at the same 
time most fully sympathize with dissenters from much 
that is contained in the middle of the circular ; but 
on critical examination we are likely to discover that 
our only valid objection to some points in the cir- 
cular is that they are not sufficiently demonstrated 
by human experience ; that they are speculative rather 
than practical, or that we do not fully understand 
them. 

At the outset of this " Epitome" we are told that 
Theosophy or Wisdom-Religion is of unknown age, and 
that it offers us a theory of life founded upon knowl- 
edge acquired by ancient sages of the Orient. This 
claim should certainly be substantiated before any one 
is expected to indorse it, and it will be our object in 
this volume to consult the records of the ancient East, 
to discover what grounds we have for admitting Orien- 
tal religions to the category of repositories of divine 
wisdom. 



30 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

First and foremost, in all our researches we must ever 
place Man himself. Anthropology is the king of sciences 
if theology is their queen; and so inseparably united 
are anthropology and theology that the one is practi- 
cally impossible without the other. In some of his ser- 
mons Henry Ward Beecher has said that in his opinion 
the creeds of Christendom began at the wrong end ; 
they should have commenced with man and worked 
up to God ; instead of that they began with God and 
worked down to man. When Beecher made such state- 
ments his temper of thought was distinctly Aryan, and 
in a sense therefore anti-Semitic ; while the creed- 
makers were intensely Semitic and thus in a sense anti- 
Aryan, though Semiticism is not necessarily opposed to 
Aryanism, or vice versa. 

The Aryan race contemplates the external universe, 
and, finding nature, seeks to discover God through 
nature ; the Semitic peoples, on the contrary, apprehend 
Deity first of all and then account for the objective uni- 
verse by a system of outward reasoning. We find to- 
day in the Western world a large preponderance of the 
Aryan type and habit, which is exactly the type and 
habit of physical scientists and agnostic philosophers, 
also of every professed Spiritualist who requires exter- 
nal phenomena to convince him, and rests his assurance 
of immortality on visual and aural demonstrations of 
psychic power. But it may readily be asked if the 
Aryan method is from without to within, while the 
Semitic is from within to without, how can a Theosophi- 
cal society ever be Aryan ? The answer is simply to 
this effect : the very persons who most need to study 



LECTURE II. 31 

literature and to investigate singular phenomena are of 
the Aryan type ; the truly developed Semitic is intui- 
tive, not rationalistic, and being satisfied to the point 
of positive and full conviction through the agency of 
inward testimony, needs no external help such as read- 
ing and phenomena supply. Both types can make good 
Theosophists, but they rarely coalesce in outward meth- 
ods and seldom work very well together. 

Theosophical literature is necessarily largely of an 
argumentative character, as the great bulk of readers 
the world over is composed of people who rely more 
on intellect than intuition. The most intuitive are 
rarely book- worms. In ancient days, in Israel, when there 
was " open vision," when prophets were abundant, and 
the gift of seership carefully nurtured in the young, very 
little value, comparatively speaking, was placed on sa- 
cred manuscripts or the written law. When Solomon's 
Temple was in all its splendor and the Hebrew faith 
shone at its brightest, the people depended upon the 
living voice of the prophet far more than on the records 
of a more spiritual age ; for in the days of spiritual dis- 
pensation the oracle was alive and accessible. After a 
time, largely through the materiality of the affections 
of the people, prophets became fewer, the voice of the 
living spirit waxed fainter and ever fainter, till after a 
while not only the Torah, or written law, but the Talmud 
Midrash and a host of other rabbinical commentaries 
which exalted the Levitical to the level of the Mosaic 
law, were venerated by the multitude almost as highly 
as the Decalogue ; until after a while the law and the 
testimony were looked to as final authorities from whose 



32 STUDIES £N THEOSOPHY. 

decision there must be no appeal. Then began the age 
of spiritual decadence for the Hebrew race, and the 
substitution of books for living inspiration. Precisely 
the same error has been fallen into by the Hindu race, 
who from being at one time the most enlightened among 
all the people on the earth, have become in many re- 
spects painfully degraded, though the author of this 
volume distinctly refuses credence to the sensational 
and exaggerated accounts of Hindoo degradation, gotten 
up by sensationalists with a view to exalting the Chris- 
tian religion and Western institutions at the expense of 
justice to India and her native population. 

But to return to prophecy and writings. Prophecy 
is incapable of long continuance when prophets are 
persecuted persistently by people who will not hear the 
message they have to deliver ; i.e. prophecy in public 
soon ceases. While the race of prophets never becomes 
extinct, when these illumined ones are driven from the 
surface of society through the belligerent force of brutal 
and determined persecution, they betake themselves to 
solitudes where they still carry on a work for humanity. 
The nature of such work ought to be appreciated by 
all Spiritualists, Mental Healers, and those in general 
who attribute a potency to silent, invisible forces not 
credited to such forces by the unspiritual, material 
mind, which laughs at everything not evident to physi- 
cal sense. Whenever a period of re-awakened interest 
in spiritual truth invites the prophetic mind to emerge 
from privacy, and proclaim openly the knowledge long 
concealed, we hear of a revival of all kinds of psychic 
gifts ; and while at such periods a good deal of impurity 



LECTURE II. 33 

comes to the surface, this passes off as scum from the 
mind of society, while beneath this external rubbish is 
discovered genuine knowledge and love of truth. 

The Israelites and the Aryans have alike, through 
long periods of outward darkness, never lost sight of 
the lamp of divine wisdom burning within, though this 
pure and holy light has been for long periods almost 
entirely concealed from the masses. In this brighter 
and freer age the flames are beginning to leap high once 
more upon the altars of humanity, and the new order 
will not be fully inaugurated without severe conflict 
with the " powers of darkness." The light now break- 
ing is clearly destined to illumine a large portion of 
the earth within the next few years, so as to completely 
change the social and religious aspects of affairs in the 
now advancing regions of the earth, while to those por- 
tions of the world not prepared for the full blaze of this 
re-illumination a certain measure of light will also be 
accorded, sufficient at least to greatly ameliorate the 
condition of the teeming multitudes now subject to 
tyrannical misrule. Theosophy strikes out for vital 
and permanent reform by laying the axe at the root 
of the tree to be destroyed, instead of lopping off the 
withering branches, or here and there cutting off a 
vigorous limb. The affections of humanity must be 
appealed to, or there can be no reformation which will 
endure. The history of every great and successful 
movement clearly demonstrates this proposition. When 
Luther and his coadjutors effected a complete change 
in the attitude of a large part of Europe to the Roman 
Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, the great 



34 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

success of their work depended upon the readiness of 
the popular mind to accept the proposed changes in 
ecclesiastical polity, as well as to accept many modi- 
fications of doctrine. The Reformation was rendered 
possible only through the disaffection previously in the 
minds of the people toward the established religious 
hierarchy; and this disaffection was brought about 
through the ambitious worldliness of the Church of- 
ficials themselves. Had popes, cardinals, prelates, and 
all under them fulfilled the spiritual law, and concerned 
themselves with the peaceful establishment and main- 
tenance of a heavenly kingdom on earth, there could 
have been no butchery in the name of religion. To 
justify persecution is insane; to attribute it to religious 
conviction is a great mistake. Persecutors are at the 
start ambitious individuals thirsting for material do- 
minion, and, moreover, persons who will not hesitate, 
under pressure of seeming necessity, to use religion as 
a cloak for licentiousness. 

Religion to-day is again under a cloud all over the 
world, entirely owing to the prelatical ambition which 
has been substituted for the meek and gentle temper 
of all the world's greatest seers and sages. To con- 
trast Jesus with Gautama is but to compare two great 
human ideals and find them one ; for deep in the heart 
of humanity a deep and tender love of sweet and gentle 
righteousness is ever to be found. Now this sweet 
gentleness which shines so conspicuously in the highest 
human ideals, is by no means the accompaniment of 
meek submissiveness to error. No man can be so brave 
as a true gentleman; but the difference between the 



LECTURE II. 35 

gentleman and the boor is properly the difference be- 
tween homo and wV, the former term standing m old 
Latin for an ordinary animal-fighting man, the latter 
for a superior being in whom the distinctively super- 
animal dispositions of manhood are in the ascendency. 
Bulwer Lytton, in his truly theosophical romance, " The 
Coming Race," aptly styles the marvellous people whom 
he describes Vril-Ya, while the vril they gather from 
all nature and control perfectly is the universal ether, 
akasa, or astral force so often spoken of by students of 
the occult sciences. This subtle, all-pervading force is 
amenable to the control of a high order of intelligence 
only, and while universally present in nature, cannot 
be manipulated and utilized except by persons in whom 
the lower principle (homo) is subservient to the higher 
principle (vir). Thus, while a man who has cultivated 
nothing but his animal nature (anima bruta) is simply 
a biped in human shape, and quite at the mercy of 
savage creatures and the elements, one who has un- 
folded to some degree his intellectual or human self, 
which makes him man instead of brute, though pos- 
sessed thereby of ability beyond the savage, is still quite 
without the superlative power of those in whom the 
spiritual soul (anima divina) is liberated and expressed. 
Such words as virile and virility are shamefully mis- 
applied in popular usage, as they clearly spring from 
the root word vir, which the Latins never used except 
in connection with quite super-animal, and properly 
with super-intellectual attainments. Man, to be able 
to control any element outside his own personality, 
must first have brought that element into obedience 



36 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

to its rightful superior, within the economy of his 
own nature. This open secret, as it may be termed, 
considering it is a secret from the multitude, and yet 
free to all who are desirous of learning how to live 
truly and healthily, will explain the just cause of rela- 
tive successes and failures in all pursuits and enter- 
prises where something more than animal vigor and 
ordinary intelligence are needed to produce results. 

Theosophical teachings are ignorantly scorned by 
many people who are every day of their existence con- 
fronted with difficult problems Theosophy alone can 
solve. We can only pity and seek to enlighten, if but 
a little, those prejudiced ones among Spiritualists and 
Mental Healers alike, who are subject to every kind of 
difficulty and unpleasant experience through lack of a 
better comprehension of the forces they are trying to 
govern, but which in their present state of incapable 
ignorance are governing them and often making sport 
of them most mercilessly. As much is constantly being 
said and written concerning astral force, astral light, 
astral bodies, etc., let us go to our Greek lexicons for a 
definition of the word astral, before endeavoring to use 
it. Astron means a star, and from astron, astral is 
clearly derived. Now the word astral, which means 
pertaining to the stars, starry, and starlike, may be 
properly applied to that force, substance, ether, body 
light, etc., of which stars are formed, and also to what- 
ever is intei-stellar, or between stars, and to that which 
shines like a star. Astral is, then, a very wide word. 
First, it designates the inner substance of the planet 
and the inner body of man. In expression we may 



LECTURE II. 37 

speak of three elements, — spirit, force, and matter: the 
astral realm is the realm of force, which exists between 
spirit and matter and is the bond uniting them. But 
at this point we are sure to be asked if we are not re- 
tracting many statements in " Spiritual Therapeutics " 
and other of our works, wherein we declare, that essen- 
tially all is spirit, and therefore there is nothing but 
spirit in the permanent life of man ? We contend that 
as the greater can always contain the less, while the less 
cannot possibly hold the greater, spirit can include force, 
and force can include matter. Matter is but an emana- 
tion of force, a temporary solidification of force, and 
not the whole of force at any time ; and this statement 
is, we contend, acceptable to chemistry which teaches 
by experiment that all of matter is resolvable into ether, 
while all of ether cannot be converted into solids or 
fluids. Spirit is the cause of all things, and itself the 
primal and ultimate No Thing of the Mystics, yet is 
beyond all things, and is the cause of all. Force is its 
earlier manifestation, matter being its ultimated expres- 
sion. 

Now as man has always conceived of an inner and an 
outer body, a body of force and a body of matter, he 
has instinctively felt that the force body could travel 
from star to star, while the material body is confined to 
the earth, held by the force of gravity. All spiritual 
manifestations of a phenomenal order are simply exhibi- 
tions of force triumphing over matter, and may be pro- 
duced through the agency of adepts or magicians (great 
or wise people is the true meaning of magicians) either 
in or out of their earthly expression. The mistake 



38 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

made by uncultured Spiritualists is, that they do not 
recognize the power of the adept as identical with that 
of the human entity disrobed of mortal form; but so 
far from genuine Spiritualism and Theosophy conflict- 
ing at this point, they perfectly agree, as Spiritualism 
teaches most emphatically that there is no sudden re- 
moval from a state of moral and mental impotency on 
earth, to all-powerfulness in the state immediately fol- 
lowing bodily dissolution. The only reasons we can 
assign for the stupid opposition to Theosophy shown by 
many seemingly zealous Spiritualists, are, that they have 
not fully outgrown the dogmas of the churches they 
often berate, or they are quite ignorant of the real 
teaching of Theosophy, which is that the higher princi- 
ple in man must control the lower, or he cannot be a 
wonder-worker on this side of the grave or the other ; 
growth alone determining and regulating his measure 
of power. A very vulgar error is that the invisible 
world has some stated geographical situation ; the truth 
is that it is everywhere, interpenetrating every particle 
of seemingly inert matter. A. J. Davis, in his " Stellar 
Key to the Summer Land," and similar works, under- 
taking to locate heavens, may be correct in some sense, 
though such works are apt to mislead the reader who 
carries to them a mind filled with theories of locality. 
All outward conditions are expressions of interior 
states ; as a man thinketh so will he come to appear, 
gradually if not instantly, and surely all students of 
antenatal causes for afflictions, etc., must get their eyes 
open to the fact that mental conditions clearly produce 
bodily results. 



LECTURE II. 39 

Throughout the entire universe every outward globe 
or physical expression of an unseen force is a result of 
some psychical wave of action, unknown save to stu- 
dents of the occult (hidden or invisible) forces of nature. 
Occult or astral force is of all conceivable grades of 
refinement and density, and offers precisely the same 
resistance to what is commonly called the spiritual 
body that matter offers to the physical organism. 
Theosophy teaches us that as we, through purer and 
higher modes of thought and action, outgrow our ani- 
mal propensities, being no longer governed by the lower 
grades of invisible forces, we shall be able to control 
them, and thus at length be able to demonstrate our 
complete victory over all material surroundings. The 
most exciting portions of the book of Daniel, so eagerly 
devoured by children, are profound occult narratives, 
and even if taken literally are neither ridiculous nor 
improbable, as man can fully overcome the ferocity of the 
beast and even the action of fire. Eventually, through 
unfolding of the higher principle within us, all things 
shall appear possible which are utterly impossible to 
our animal, and also to our simply intellectual, soul. 
Try to consider the astral world simply as the inner 
world, " the soul of things " approached through psy- 
chometry, and the difficulty will soon vanish when we 
find the psychic realm everywhere, and learn that 
dominion over lower grades of force and complete con- 
quest over matter is a result attainable only as we 
persistently develop our higher, and through so doing 
subordinate our lower, nature. 



LECTURE III. 

THE WORK AND POSSIBILITIES OF THE THEOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY AND ITS BRANCHES. 

(An address intended for delivery on the occasion of a G-eneral Conference, 
slightly altered in form to adapt it to this volume.) 

Every lover of Theosophy, or the Wisdom-Religion 
of mankind, must hail with delight every indication of 
unity among seekers after truth, and feel deep regret 
at whatever is calculated to divide into groups and 
factions, antagonistic the one to the other, those who 
are striving to leave this world a little brighter than 
they found it. In view of this, does it not behoove us 
to contend most earnestly for the grand, solid basis of 
our sublime universal religion, and leave as subject for 
speculative inquiry only those moot questions and con- 
tested doctrines over which so many honest, good- 
meaning people stumble and fall ? Re-incarnation, for 
instance, is a teaching which many earnest minds find 
very difficult to accept. Devaehan, as ordinarily ex- 
plained or not explained, is another serious obstacle ; 
while astral bodies, shells, the reliquse of the departed, 
etc., as instrumental in the production of alleged spir- 
itual manifestations, are again other matters calculated 
to divide rather than unite seekers after truth. 



LECTUKE III. 41 

Now Theosophy is founded on a recognition of eter- 
nal and essential justice supreme in the universe. The 
great value of the ethics of Theosophy consists in the 
fact that they do most emphatically present the idea of 
infinite, undeviating justice to the mind, and whatever 
may be said to the contrary by its opponents, this much- 
vexed question of repeated embodiments harmonizes 
exactly with absolute uncompromising equity. But is 
it the dogma of embodiments or the principle of equity 
for which we should most zealously contend ? Is it not 
quite thinkable that many persons, while acknowledg- 
ing the existence and claim of equity, do not see the 
necessity of re-incarnation to indicate and illustrate 
supreme justice ? If they can, or if they feel they can, 
account for the manifold inequalities of this present 
state without having recourse to the hypothesis of suc- 
cessive embodiments, are we not unwise if we lay over- 
much stress on that hypothesis ? 

We are never forgetful of the fact that brotherhood 
is the only crucial test of Theosophy ; still there are 
sometimes persons in the theosophical camp who make 
re-embodiment too prominent. This charge may with 
all kindliness of advisory suggestion be preferred per- 
haps against Mrs. Sinnett's generally excellent work, 
"The Purpose of Theosophy," and other publications 
of similar import by different authors. Let all vexed • 
problems be submitted for thoughtful consideration to 
the public mind ; and even though the Oriental Scrip- 
tures and the Masters do appear to teach certain things 
very plainly in the letter of their instructions, are we 
always right in feeling sure that we are not sometimes 



42 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

unwittingly substituting exotericism for esotericism in our 
deductions and avowals, in this connection? (vide the 
introductory chapter of Madame Blavatsky's grandest 
and most recent work, " The Secret Doctrine," wherein 
she convicts Mr. Sinnett of falling into some error of 
this kind, though with the best possible intentions, in 
his much valued work, " Esoteric Buddhism"). Some 
deliverances of Theosophists in the past have been too 
acrid, many have been far too dogmatic. As we all 
learn by experience, let us not regret the past, but 
strive to profit by the lessons we may learn from its 
imperfections, and for the future let us cling more to 
essentials and divide less on speculative matters. 

Another very important question is the avoidance of 
personal squabbles and the disagreeable canvassing of 
private reputations. In the case of the late controversy 
over the authorship of "Light on the Path," a great 
deal of most unseemly strife has been ventilated in 
public print. Recriminations and counter-recrimina- 
tions cannot thus see the light without imposing on the 
Theosophical movement an onus of ugliness it has no 
right or reason to carry. Reprehensible in the extreme 
as the conduct of the Religio-Philosophical Journal of 
Chicago has been in connection with this and kindred 
subjects, we cannot honestly say that The Path or 
even Lucifer or The Theosophist have been quite free 
from deserved criticism in this respect. What the 
earnest truth-seeker needs is not a recital of how, why, 
when, and where parties fall out and call each other 
hard names ; but a cautious yet frank presentation, and 
as far as possible elucidation, of great spiritual and 



LECTURE III. 43 

psychical problems demanding solution at the hands of 
all who are earnestly seeking aid to walk in the path of 
genuine spiritual development and higher mental and 
physical culture. The great need of the present day, 
as it appears to us at least, is not wordy discussion 
over obscure mysteries, but practical co-operation to 
the end of establishing the reign of righteousness on 
earth. 

Sometimes we think the sure though apparently dila- 
tory outworking of the law of Karma is too much, 
because too blindly, insisted on. We hear very fre- 
quently, indeed, that so-and-so cannot come into the 
light, cannot be healed, etc., by reason of his or her 
Karma, accumulated in previous existences. Without 
questioning there being such Karma, and without deny- 
ing it is a hindrance in many instances, we would still 
most particularly urge the object of disciplinary embod- 
iment, which is surely to vanquish and overcome, not to 
yield or submit to, refractory Karma, Karma is a per- 
sistent force in constant operation. Every thought, 
word, and deed makes or unmakes Karma; but as it 
is a question of the strength of the effort put forward, 
not the length of time consumed in putting forward 
such effort, which determines its effectiveness, we can- 
not be too urgent in assuring all who are in any meas- 
ure desirous of attaining a higher station, that though 
they cannot skip any of the rounds in the ladder of 
Progression, they can accelerate their transit over them. 
The practical questions of the day cannot be settled on 
a physical basis ; they must be dealt with spiritually, or 
(satisfactorily) not at all. 



44 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

The special object, then, of organization with theo- 
sophical intent should be to place before the inquiring 
public the tenets of Theosophy in as simple and prac- 
tical a manner as possible. This is, happily, now being 
done, to some extent at least, by the many excellent 
and well-attended open meetings of the various lodges 
in the different cities where such lodges have been 
established. The membership in these lodges is con- 
stantly increasing, and the influx of new members is 
most encouraging, as they are chiefly persons of high 
mental attainments and noble moral aspirations. We 
could easily congratulate the Theosophical Society at 
large on what it has already accomplished in the right 
direction, and when we point out where the blunders 
have been made, it is only with a view to their future 
avoidance and present rectification as far as possible. 
The Theosophical Publication Society has issued many 
excellent pamphlets at a very moderate price, but to 
some of them at least two exceptions may be taken. 
Some are so extremely transcendental, that, while of 
interest and value to scholars, they are quite beyond 
the comprehension of the very persons whom literary 
efforts of a missionary character are specially intended 
to reach. This is, however, our minor objection ; our 
major criticism we reserve for those publications and 
utterances which deal less fairly with Christianity than 
with Buddhism. Now we know that as soon as Chris- 
tian people begin to look into Theosophy they are apt 
to feel justly offended at a manifest partiality for 
Buddha and relative disparagement of Christ. This 
attitude may be natural to persons who have become 



LECTURE III. 45 

disgusted with the superficiality and hypocrisy, alas ! so 
prevalent in Christendom, and who, in the first flush of 
their ardor at sight of the excellences in Hinduism, 
hasten to pay their tribute to the latter and expose the 
fallacies of the former. Such precipitation is, however, 
exceedingly unwise, as it does not bear the impress of 
profound research or sober judgment, and inevitably 
gives occasion for attack on Oriental religions of the 
most spiteful and damaging kind. It is the purpose of 
Theosophy to show the truth in all religions, not to 
hold up one religion as so very much truer than all 
beside it; to prove how, in remote lands and distant 
ages widely separated by space and time, the same 
pearl of measureless price has been discovered by untir- 
ing travellers toward the goal of perfection. Lady 
Caithness, in " The Mystery of the Ages," has contrib- 
uted to this benign accomplishment in a queenly man- 
ner : would that other authors had been equally happy 
in elucidating the theme ! That very valuable author, 
Franz Hartmann, in his " Jehoshua, the Prophet of Naz- 
areth," has said very much that is true and beautiful con- 
cerning the character and life of the great adept whom 
all Christendom reveres, as a unique master in wis- 
dom ; but he has, in our judgment, marred and enfee- 
bled a portion of his treatise by putting a very low 
construction on the cursing of the barren fig-tree, the 
driving of money-changers from the temple, and other 
similar incidents in the life of Jesus as recorded by 
the Evangelists, when a much higher interpretation of 
these incidents would have been far more esoteric, prof- 
itable, and therefore theosophical. Whenever Gautama, 



46 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the saintly hero, whom Edwin Arnold so beautifully 
styles " The Light of Asia," is alluded to, no such 
aspersions are cast as are frequently cast on Jesus ; and 
why is it, if not because a certain poetical glamour is 
thrown over Buddhism and all pertaining to it in the 
minds of Mr. Hartmann and other authors who adopt 
the style he uses, while these persons are by no means 
so friendly to Christianity ? While very much of Gerald 
Massey's writing is painfully harsh and external, he, 
notwithstanding his violent prejudice against the Chris- 
tian religion, makes many excellent points when in his 
review of " The Historical Jesus and the Gnostic 
Christ," he endeavors to refine away all personal ideas 
of the logos, making the essential Christ the highest 
element in man, and in no sense an outward historical 
personage. 

The personal controversies over which so much blood 
was spilled in the Middle Ages, and which are the cause 
of so much waste of nervous force as well as ink and 
paper to-day, are but bubbles on the surface of thought. 
It is clearly impossible to either verify or disprove a 
literal history of a personal Christ or Buddha in any 
satisfactory way. At the same time it is not impossible 
or even difficult to show that there is indeed a light 
enlightening every man ; and this light, though existent 
in all men, and capable of expression through all, has 
been expressed in a marvellous degree by some few of 
the world's exceptionally wise and illumined teachers. 
The work of Theosophists in America and Europe 
should be identical with what they are endeavoring to 
do in Asia. Missionaries have been sent to the East 



LECTURE III. 47 

to tell the Orientals that they are in danger of ever- 
lasting misery unless they turn from their religion and 
scripture to the books and opinions held sacred in the 
West. Missionary enterprise is almost as futile in 
India, China, and Japan as is the work of that most 
ineffective organization, " The Society for promoting 
Christianity among the Jews," which so persistently 
asks assistance in countless churches every year on 
Good Friday. The real value of the theosophical 
movement in Asia is, that it is helping Asiatics to 
understand their own religion, by expounding truth to 
them through the use of a language and literature 
to which they are accustomed. In Europe and America 
the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are in every one's 
hand ; the Vedas and Puranas are not. Why not, then, 
prove the identity of the spirit of all religion, by using, 
wherever we may be, the literature with which the peo- 
ple are familiar ? and, by letting them see the identity 
of the revelation made in both hemispheres help on 
gloriously, expeditiously, the realization of our common, 
brotherhood, — a work which can never be effectuated 
by disparaging one scripture to enthrone another in 
popular esteem. 

The Bible as we have it is full of Theosophy ; so are 
all Oriental scriptures. The same great truths are 
clearly or obscurely proclaimed in all, according to the 
clearness or obscurity which marks the reader's mind. 
Mohini M. Chatterji, the young Brahman who started 
out on a missionary tour through Europe and America 
some few years ago, did a grand work in publishing a 
new translation in English of the Bhagavad-Gita, with 



48 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

notes and references to the New Testament, in which 
he tells his Christian readers that he need not convert 
them, nor need they convert him to a new religion, for 
the faith of the Orient and of the Occident is essen- 
tially the same. Theosophy being the great under- 
current of spiritual meaning running through all the 
great writings extant all over the world, no matter 
when, where, or by whom originally produced, can only 
be brought to light and do its work as it removes the 
veil of the letter which kills and gets killed and exposes 
the Spirit, which ever lives and is the giver of immortal 
life to all who realize its presence and its sway. With 
this thought uppermost in our affections and intellects, 
we can go forth to spread glad tidings over all the earth. 
As a further suggestion for increasing the efficiency 
of the work of all branches of the Theosophical Society, 
wherever established or about to be established, we 
would urge upon all members of the various lodges the 
great desirability, we may add necessity, of members 
cultivating the society of each other, meeting together 
as often as practicable at each others' houses where no 
lodge-room is permanently available. At such meetings 
the central aim should be to discover how nearly these 
good people can come together in thought and feeling, 
and what particular spheres of usefulness they may 
individually occupy best. It is of little advantage for 
people to join societies, and acknowledge their adhesion 
to a great bond of union, if they do not embrace and 
seek to create opportunities and occasions for mutual 
converse and help. The work of many a society lan- 
guishes because of the members not acting in accord- 



LECTURE III. 49 

ance with a due recognition of the tie of brotherhood ; 
while much inspiration is lost by two or three fluent 
speakers or able writers being looked to at all times, 
under all circumstances, to furnish food for the mental 
digestion of all the rest. Timidity and bashfulness 
should have no place among brothers and sisters ; fear 
of criticism or of being misunderstood should never 
seal the lips of one who feels he has aught to say for 
the edification of the assemblage. To underrate our 
powers or mask our gifts, to fight off inspirations and 
disown ability, is not humility, but pride masquerading 
as its opposite virtue. 

Above all, in thought, word, and deed let us be 
charitable in our judgments, the one of the other. This 
grand old grace, charity, placed by Paul above faith 
and hope, above prophecy, and tongues, and all beside, 
is the virtue we so sorely lack to-day. The absence of 
it from our midst is the cause of the weaknesses and 
dissensions among us, and its absence among those who 
profess better things is really unpardonable as well as 
pitiable. The abnegation of the lower self, about which 
we hear and talk and write so much, is impossible to 
us unless we studiously cultivate the higher self. And 
while the prohibitory form of some of the command- 
ments which constitute the decalogue make it at first 
sight appear that the highest conception of the ancient 
Israelites was to refrain from iniquity, we must not 
forget that the two great affirmative commands on 
which Jesus declared all the law and prophets depend, 
are Jewish utterances, taken out of the Old Testament 
and placed in the New, as proof of the identity of the 



50 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

counsels of Jesus with those of the great legislators 
and prophets who preceded him and lived long before 
his day. Thou shalt love with all thy heart and mind 
whatever is good, practically means that we are to so 
cultivate love for good as to find it engrossing our every 
thought and feeling, leaving no possible room for its 
opposite. Truth, when spoken in love, is always pow- 
erful and convincing. As it lays hold upon the human 
intellect and heart at one and the same moment, it 
is both sweet and reasonable to describe it in terms 
especially dear to the friends and admirers of Matthew 
Arnold, and men who, like him, have sought to unite 
reason and affection in all presentations of truth. How 
much unreasonable sweetness and anything but sweet 
rationalizing there is in modern literature, converse, 
and oratory, we need not attempt to decide. That 
there is far, far too much for the peace and safety of 
society and the effectual spread of truth, none can deny. 
It being the special purpose of Theosophy to present 
wisdom lovingly, and to culture the affections to love 
wisely, no work is in reality theosophical ; i.e. wise in 
the divine, loving sense which does not address itself 
to reason and affection both at once. Some persons are 
certainly far more emotional than intellectual ; others 
again far more rational than affectionate. Both classes 
are capable of doing excellent work for the general 
good, but the two are better united in one. The old 
words, " It is not good for man to be alone," recur to 
us at this point. Many of our readers are doubtless 
familiar with the Kabalistic interpretation of that text. 
The Kabalists, not being believers in any such thing as 



LECTURE III. 51 

absolute or essential evil in the constitution of the 
universe or man, declared the true meaning of the word 
evil to be simply imperfection ; less than perfect state 
is called an evil state. In many of us the Adam (in- 
tellect) is without its complementary Eve (affection). 
We are therefore not good, i.e. not perfect. This 
imperfection of ours is the cause of our irregulari- 
ties, antagonisms, and general ineffectiveness. As we 
become inwardly married, and as this inward union 
manifests outwardly, we shall appear good, perfect, 
lacking nothing, as the apostle James speaks of those 
who are filled with divine wisdom, which he contrasts 
so finely with that unmentionable wisdom of sensuality 
described as devilish. As we can none of us, to use 
the old correspondential imagery employed in Genesis, 
partake of the fruit of the tree of life and also of that 
of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, 
we have to look well to ourselves to see that the ser- 
pent of our lower nature does not tempt us to transgress 
the divine commandment engraven on the imperishable 
tablets of our own immortal nature. The thirst for 
knowledge is good, and if we gratify it aright we par- 
take of the fruit of the tree of life, which the Apocalypse 
tells us yields twelve manners of fruit, — one variety 
every month, — so that the fruit is sufficient to satisfy 
the needs of the whole year, through what it signifies. 
If we are actuated by sordid motives, and seek to be- 
come magicians of the lower type, we shall surely for- 
feit our ability to partake of the fruit of the celestial 
tree and to drink of the perennial spring of life-giving 
water. 



52 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY, 

This expressive imagery is not hard to interpret 
among students of such literature as now issues from 
the press, filled with references to a higher and a lower 
principle in man. Bishop Butler, author of the famous 
" Analogy," formerly considered an unanswerable vin- 
dication of the Christian religion, was without doubt a 
Theosophist, even if he knew it not, as in his analysis 
of the component elements which make up man as we 
at present see him, he described all as good in their 
place and for some special purpose, but gave the crown 
and palm of precedence and sovereignty to a spiritual 
element, — none other than the atma or highest princi- 
ple in the human constitution, insisted upon as supreme 
by all initiates and their pupils. The intellectual soul 
of man is surely placed midway 7 between the anima 
bruta seat of all selfish desires and the anima divina 
seat of all spiritual promptings. The Adams and Eves 
(reasoning and affectional impulses) of our distinctively 
human principle are always oscillating between obedi- 
ence to the voice of the divine and the voice of the 
animal. We must choose to obey one or the other; 
both we cannot follow, for no man can serve two mas- 
ters, however much he may desire to do so. We can- 
not look in two directions at once, though we can turn 
our heads round, and look first in one, then in the other 
direction. We cannot be going up and down hill at 
the same moment, nor can we sail toward the equator 
and toward the pole at the same instant. Theosophy 
places before us most clearly and solemnly the respon- 
sibility and consequence of choice. We cannot stand 
still long, if at all ; we must move up or down, forward 



LECTURE III, 53 

or backward. Which, shall it be, God or Mammon? 
Christ or Belial ? We cannot choose both, 

Theosophy, taking as it does all fictitious dread of 
divine wrath and an ever-burning hell from the minds 
of man, substitutes for these nightmares of unreason 
the inevitable law of sequence, Karma, cause and effect. 
By placing the judge and judgment seat within instead 
of without us, it renders rational the thought of judg- 
ment ; but by so doing it does but impress the idea of 
a judgment from which none can escape the more firmly 
in our minds. Believers in vicarious sacrifice, in the 
old false view of forgiveness, and other dogmas of ex- 
ternalism, may always hope to evade the consequences 
of their lives, but Theosophy offers no such loophole 
of escape. Sin can be outgrown, but penalty is never 
cancelled. Man makes his own heaven or his own 
hell. The sources of our joy or misery are within us; 
and as we cannot escape from ourselves, we cannot be 
happy or see the divine kingdom until we have grown 
into an affectionate appreciation of eternal law; then 
shall we have risen superior to hope of reward and 
dread of punishment alike. Happiness will then be 
our unasked boon, our unsought treasure ; for as hap- 
piness follows righteousness within, as night follows 
day and day again succeeds to night, heaven and happi- 
ness will then be ours forever. 



LECTURE IV. 

MIRACLES AND MODERN THOUGHT. 

Continuing the thread of our study from our re- 
marks in the past three discourses, we find ourselves 
brought face to face with the great problem of miracle 
in the light of nineteenth century criticism. " Robert 
Elsmere" might supply us with a text for the basis 
of this study. "Miracles do not happen," which Mrs. 
Humphrey Ward rightly says is but a restatement of 
Hume's old argument. 

Watching the drifts of modern skeptical inquiry none 
of us can be blind to the fact that so-called liberalism 
or radicalism is daily and hourly tending nearer and 
nearer the unsatisfactory point of historical and actual 
negation. 

Learning in a purely critical direction seems to be 
one long wearisome process of unlearning ; long cher- 
ished beliefs and attachments have all to be given up, 
and the weary restless mind of the scholar must either 
dismiss the subject with a sigh or allow himself to be 
carried on by the stream of doubt to where he at 
length finds himself forever banished from the super- 
natural and confronted with a stern, inexorable, natural 
order from which there can be no deviation in time or 
eternity. A rationalistic view of history allows no 



LECTURE IV. 55 

place for a resurrection or an ascension, as it allows no 
opportunity for a miraculous birth ; it is inexorably 
committed to inevitable natural law and enforces the 
reign of law everywhere as a dogma of the creed of 
necessity. 

At first sight such a consummation is greatly to be 
dreaded, as it would drive out of the world all art, 
poetry, romance, and all beside that appears most at- 
tractive to a loving and sensitive disposition ; but when 
inspected a little more closely after the shock of dis- 
illusion has been recovered from, the new view of life 
which science and philosophy alike compel us to take, 
instead of being the cold barren one it at first seemed 
to be, soon glows with a life, love, and beauty vastly 
superior to any excellence we can find in the old dis- 
carded system from which it may have cost us such 
agony to cut loose. Our object on this occasion is not, 
however, to leave the subject in the hands of Hume or 
any other negative or speculative philosopher ; we are 
not disposed to deal with negations, nor to remain con- 
tented with any attitude of denial; for in our eyes 
doubt and denial are but dark passage ways leading 
from one lighted gallery to another, and that other 
larger and brighter than the one left behind. 

Now what does the word miracle mean when rightly 
defined? It is interpreted in several dictionaries as 
"an act or event beyond human power," while the word 
miraculous in the same lexicons is defined supernaturUl 
and also wonderful. Now this word miracle is evidently 
an elastic one, for wonderful things are by no means 
necessarily supernatural ; nor are events beyond human 



56 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

power necessarily above nature, for do we not witness 
natural occurrences every day far beyond man's power 
to produce. We certainly include insects in our defini- 
tions of natural productions ; but while any one can 
easily destroy millions of them, who can create even one ? 
Spontaneous generation is a mere " will o' the wisp," 
utterly unsubstantiated by any kind of scientific experi- 
ment. Life then is miraculous, insects are miraculous, 
because the wonderful ways of spirit breathing itself 
into outward expression even in the minutest forms of 
terrestrial existence are utterly beyond human power to 
duplicate, or at least beyond such development of hu- 
man ability as we are at present acquainted with. Now 
there are three ways of accounting for events usually 
styled miracles. First, they are defined by orthodox 
theologians, as supernatural in the strictest sense, i.e. 
God has stepped aside from his ordinary method of 
governing the world by natural law and has astonished 
its inhabitants by a display of His power to suspend 
the operation of his own law. Second, they are defined 
by skeptics of every name as non-historical or unreal 
occurrences, partaking of the nature of imaginary nar- 
ratives or fairy tales, and are to be accounted for only 
by attributing belief in them to human ignorance and 
credulity. Third, they are regarded by spiritual scien- 
tists as unusual displays of an occult force in the 
universe which ever exists and which can and will 
reproduce such phenomena whenever the necessary 
conditions are afforded. With the first and second 
explanations we do not care particularly to deal, as the 
ground has been so long and ably covered by arguers 



LECTURE IV, 57 

in favor of both those theories ; it is with the third posi- 
tion only we feel ourselves called upon to deal exten- 
sively at any time, as we cannot but feel this reasonable, 
moderate, and satisfactory view is the only one which 
makes history really intelligible, and the past record of 
mankind to accord with the scientific and spiritual devel- 
opments of the present. Now, plainly the author of 
"Robert Elsmere" has not grasped this position, she 
has made her hero recoil from the supernatural and 
embrace the skeptical, though to do her justice, his 
skepticism is not of an objectionable type, and does not 
in the least interfere with his complete acceptance of 
all truth generally necessary to a noble and successful 
life. 

It is from the scientific and experimental rather than 
from the theological or moral standpoint that we take 
exception to the statement, " miracles do not happen," 
in the sense in which the words are used in her narra- 
tive ; for while, undoubtedly, events commonly called 
miraculous are only wonderful or unusual and do not 
owe their origin to any interference with universal 
law, the impression given to the ordinary mind, is that 
the alleged events never took place, and that similar 
events never can take place, there being a law to pre- 
vent them. 

Now, to state our position clearly before proceeding 
further : In the strictly etymological sense of the term, 
a miracle is simply a surprising occurrence, not neces- 
sarily due to any approach toward a suspension of uni- 
versal law, but on the contrary exhibiting the power in 
operation of a hitherto unknown or unrecognized though 



58 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

eternally-existing law. The phonograph, which repro- 
duced the performance of a military band at the Pre- 
sidio to an amazed and delighted audience in the centre 
of San Francisco, wrought a miracle in the ears of those 
who could not comprehend how tones could be thus 
mysteriously recorded, preserved, and reproduced at 
will by a subtle but unpretending little scientific in- 
strument which in common with every really valuable 
discovery of to-day owes its potency to man's ever- 
increasing familiarity with electricity and its uses. 

Electricity is the future motor, indeed it is the only 
motor if men did but know it ; but electricity works in 
obedience to an unchanging law, and this law is subject 
to will, as all law is the product and expression of will ; 
therefore, as man's will becomes ever more and more 
free from sordid material entanglement he gains ever 
greater and greater ascendancy over the subtlest and 
most potential of all the forces which are really only 
different modes of operation of one sole force — electric- 
ity. In his review or rather, somewhat severe criticism 
of " Robert Elsmere," William Ewart Gladstone, who 
is a good theologian as well as a distinguished states- 
man, shows the incompleteness of " Elsmere's " position 
by pointing out the serious omission always made by 
those who repudiate miracles on the score of their 
being impossible owing to the continuous operation of 
a fixed law of necessity governing the entire universe ; 
this important omission, which is the reason of the 
failure of their arguments to reach conclusiveness, is 
their blindness to the very nature of the law for whose 
immutability and omnipresence they are such earnest 



LECTUEE IV. 59 

sticklers. Law is not and cannot be apart from legis- 
lation, and legislation necessitates a legislator; this 
legislator is will. Now man is an embodied expression 
of divine will, and thus all intelligent Theosophists have 
from the very earliest days understood the esoteric 
meaning of the text, " Ye believe in God, believe also 
in me." 

The authors of the Synoptics were genealogists, his- 
torians, biographers, to a considerable extent at least ; 
they began their gospels with reference to the lineal 
descent of Jesus from David, or they recorded some 
incident connected with his early life. Remember we 
are not questioning the spiritual or correspondential 
meaning of the first three gospels, we are simply allud- 
ing to their literal form which is in such decided con- 
trast with the fourth or gnostic gospel, which without 
the slightest preparation, or the faintest reference to 
literal history, plunges at once into a clear but mystical 
interpretation of the Word. Greek scholars and all 
who have studied Plato will at once perceive in the 
Word of John a reaffirmation of the logos of Plato. 

Now it was the endeavor of whoever wrote the fourth 
gospel to impress upon his hearers the eternity and 
divinity of the essential spirit of man. The logos of 
the Greeks means exactly the same as the atma of 
the Hindus, which Theosophists term the seventh and 
highest principle in the constitution of man. This 
seventh principle, as it is termed, is the immortal prin- 
ciple, the Alpha and Omega, that from which all lower 
principles are expressed and by virtue of which alone 
they can exist. 



60 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Now in the days of Jesus there seems to have been 
a singular and depressing distrust of human goodness 
and greatness in the world; sin and weakness every- 
where abounded, and among the Jews this loss of per- 
sonal goodness, this failure to maintain a genuine high 
record for righteousness, was sapping the very founda- 
tions of collective and individual safety. Judea was 
already a Roman province, the hated name of Caesar 
was the synonym of government, and while there were 
no end of religious quacks endeavoring to heal the com- 
munal body by disgraceful processes of anarchy and 
venality, the truly wise and great among the Israelites 
were beginning to feel the force of the teaching of 
Jesus, who forbade them under penalty of inevitable 
ruin to employ ferocious measures or in any way to re- 
taliate upon their conquerors. Jesus came as a Hebrew 
reformer, to save and bless his own countrymen first, 
then to spread the gospel of truth over the whole 
world ; but he clearly believed that Jerusalem was the 
rightful centre of civilization at that time, and from the 
Hebrew race he taught enlightenment was to go forth 
to the uttermost parts of the earth. As he interpreted 
the moral law much as Isaiah, Jeremiah and other proph- 
ets had interpreted it previously, he won for himself the 
cordial detestation of religious hypocrites and political 
demagogues, who together conspired against him be- 
cause his teachings stirred up the people to noble inde- 
pendence of thought and feeling, and tended to wrest 
the reins of government from the hands of tyrants and 
establish by peaceable means a kingdom of heaven on 
earth ; not a republic where vox populi vox Dei would 



LECTURE IV. 61 

be the accepted motto, but a political and social state 
in which the cream of society would rise to the surface 
and be acknowledged, no matter whether it rose from 
the ranks of titled nobility or humble fishermen. 

Jesus was neither a monarchist nor a democrat, in 
that he points out the weakness of both schools, and 
seeks to lead his disciples to the understanding of a 
practical Utopian government in which righteousness 
must prevail because of men's love for it. Now in a 
sensation-loving age we are told by men of the skeptical 
school of thought that Jesus had to appeal to the love 
of the marvelous in those about him, and we are further 
informed that the tendency of those times was to exalt 
miracle so highly that sensational wonder-working would 
win popularity for a cause which otherwise would fail 
for lack of sustenance. Taking its stand on that asser- 
tion, this school seeks to account for the rise and spread 
of Christianity on the basis of alleged miracle, though of 
course, the skeptical intellect says, " miracles never hap- 
pen," and though Jesus and his followers may have 
been honest they were fanatical, and subject to illu- 
sions, while those who came after them were still more 
fanciful and not always honest, as these later Chris- 
tians according to all testimony, invented miraculous 
stories without stint, to propagate their peculiar doc- 
trines, and most of all to gain for themselves undis- 
puted ascendancy over the minds and property of a 
credulous, ungodly, illiterate multitude. 

Now every skeptical objection, however plausible, 
when put forward on these lines utterly fails to explain 
away miracles or to account for the spread of Christian- 



62 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

ity in the first century. Miracles, it is true, were and 
are very popular among the credulous who are never 
weary of startling exhibitions of occult power, and who 
are indeed so well pleased with successful sleight-of- 
hand and other feats of dexterity, that they do not at 
all object to be deceived if their credulity is fed. Mira- 
cle-mongers and believers in miracles were very com- 
mon all over the Roman Empire in the days of Jesus, 
and long afterward, and from this fact alone we may 
logically conclude that the simply miraculous element 
had exceedingly little to do with the spread of primi- 
tive Christianity ; for why, in the name of reason let it 
be asked, should people abandon one miraculous system 
for another when the latter was no more miraculous 
than the former ? It is at this point that miracles re- 
quire classification as well as definition. Miracles may 
be divided into four classes : — 

First, Ordinary events which are only regarded as 
miraculous by persons afflicted with over-strung nerves 
whose diseased condition causes them to attribute every- 
thing unusual or mysterious to supernatural agency. In 
connection with such occurrences as are termed miracles 
by hysterically disposed persons, must be classed, of 
course, those subjective experiences of their own, which 
have no actual form for any but the nervous beholder. 

Second, Genuine exhibitions of some occult power, 
such as mesmerism, thought reading, etc., which must 
always create intense surprise and be looked upon 
either as divine or diabolical, until the simple, rational 
explanation of such phenomena shall be scientifically 
published and accepted by the world in general. Under 



LECTUKE IV. 63 

this heading we would place all genuine occult phenom- 
ena which apparently accomplish neither appreciable 
good or harm, but simply amaze the witnesses and set 
them to wondering how such things can be. 

Third, All unscrupulous exercise of occult power, 
sometimes denominated " black magic," and now often 
designated malicious mesmerism; in the Middle Ages 
regarded as dealing with the devil, and in very ancient 
times designated sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, etc., 
and sternly forbidden many times by Hebrew prophets 
and legislators and also by wise and good men in all 
countries. Under this caption we should include all 
abuse of psychic power, which is of course reprehensi- 
ble, as the perversion of any faculty must be a source 
of danger to the individual and society. 

Fourth, Divine magic, which is none other than the 
work of those true adepts or initiates, who have in 
every age and place so subdued the flesh to the spirit, 
that they have developed extraordinary power over the 
lower forces of nature. It is to this divine magic, the 
true Theosophist ever appeals, when asked for the cre- 
dentials of Theosophy, and it has now become our duty 
to deal with Bible miracles in the light of definitions 
already given. 

Every form Df divination was at different times prac- 
tised among the Jews, who often indulged in the black 
art in common with their less enlightened neighbors, 
the Canaanites, Hittites, etc. Whenever they sank into 
idolatry and immorality they had recourse to wizards 
who peep and mutter, and exalted to the highest offices, 
unscrupulous persons, who, while doubtless possessed of 



64 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

considerable occult power, shamelessly perverted it to 
the basest of ends for personal aggrandizement. 

This power, however, misused as it always was by 
the ambitious and unscrupulous, utterly failed to be- 
stow the slightest blessing on the community ; instead, 
indeed, of benefiting the people, it added to their dis- 
tresses and sickness. Magic of that type was performed 
both by Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh's court 
just prior to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, and until 
Moses healed the people of their afflictions, he failed to 
prove that God was with him. Making all the allow- 
ance any one may please for exaggeration and roman- 
ticism in the narrator's style, the self-evident conclusion 
is, that when it was a mere matter of converting rods 
into snakes and snakes into rods, or of multiplying 
pests, Moses had no pre-eminence over Pharaoh's magi- 
cians who did precisely the same with their enchant- 
ments ; but when it came to driving away plagues and 
disorders, the magicians failed and Moses triumphed. 
Henry George, the great labor-agitator, has spoken 
of Moses frequently in his addresses to workingmen, 
and has commented with much ability on that ancient 
law-giver's uncompromising loyalty to principle. Now 
whether Moses be regarded as a genuine personage, or 
only a hero of romance, it needs no long analysis of his 
career to see why such a man was able to accomplish 
wonders of beneficence, the courted magicians of the 
Egyptian monarch could not approach. Moses was 
from an infant accustomed to every luxury; and was 
indeed heir apparent to the throne of Egypt, but he 
preferred to cast in his lot with oppressed workmen, 



LECTURE IV. 65 

and deliver them from cruel bondage to tyrannical op- 
pressors, at the expense of every possible humiliation 
to himself, than sit next Sesostris on his throne, where 
his conscience would rebuke him for leaving the work 
of human emancipation undone. Such a man is typical 
of the true initiate, of the adept who is a master where 
others are but slaves ; he has conquered his own appe- 
tites and ambitions; he has educated his higher self; 
he has fanned into a flame the electric spark of divinity 
within, and has thereby gained power which all who 
will rightly, may gain over the lower elements of na- 
ture ; he is therefore a healer and a moral benefactor ; 
his miracles are not tricks of occult force, like the sen- 
sational blasting of a tree unwisely published by Mr. 
Sinnett in " Karma ; a Theosophical Romance," for the 
power to blast a tree may be diabolical, and we do not 
wonder at the Englishman of conservative belief object- 
ing to a young relative of his, remaining where such 
awful things were accomplished by occult agency. True 
spiritual power does act destructively when infamies and 
impurities have to be thrown down, but it never displays 
itself at all in the simple exhibition of marvels, for, it 
can only be distinguished from diabolism (which is a 
perversion of the same power) by its exclusively benefi- 
cent action ; thus from the earliest days it has been 
invariably associated almost exclusively with the refor- 
mation of sinners and the healing of the sick. 

In the case of the prophet Elisha, we are told that 
in healing Naaman, the Assyrian captain, of leprosy, 
he required of his patient that he should wash seven 
times in the Jordan, maintaining that no amount of 



66 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

bathing in Abana (stony) and Pharpar (swift) rivers of 
Damascus, could accomplish his cure. We are told of 
Elijah's stretching himself on the body of a seemingly 
dead child, and calling earnestly upon God to let his 
spirit return into the body, and the child revived. 

In all these narratives we detect a scientific note ; 
means are employed, events are brought about evidently 
through the operation of an unchanging law, but such 
great results can only be achieved by those who pray 
and/as^ as the gospel teaches — prayer and fasting signi- 
fying aspiration and self-denial, i.e. denial of the lower 
self that the higher self may perfectly prevail. To re- 
vert now very briefly to the miracles said to have been 
wrought by Jesus and his immediate disciples, not one 
was a mere sensation ; in every instance some sick or 
insane or crippled person was healed of an infirmity, 
and whatever view Jesus or his apostles may have taken 
of his divinity or simple humanity, the miracles were 
never put forward as evidence of supernatural deity ; 
for had they been, the words could never have found 
place in the record, " The works that I do ye shall do 
also, and greater works than these shall ye do because 
I go to my Father." Here we have a strictly scientific 
view of miracles. Jesus tells his disciples that accord- 
ing to their faith it shall be unto them; he also tells 
those who are healed by his touch or by mere contact 
with his robe that their own faith has healed them, and 
when he has departed from mortal sight entirely, and 
his disciples are weaned far more from earthly attach- 
ments, then shall they do yet greater deeds than any 
done before, continually demonstrating further and 



LECTURE IV. 67 

further in their own experience the divine possibilities 
of humanity. 

Let us sum up the matter in this wise. Very little 
do we know of time, place, and circumstance, with re- 
gard to the miracles of old, but one great lesson we do 
learn from all the scriptural narratives, and this we am- 
plify and prove by reason and modern experiment, viz. 
that wisdom is to be gained only by diligent devotion 
to truth. Divine wisdom is a queen who permits no 
rival to share our affections with her ; the wisdom which 
is from above is only to be courted and won by a life 
of such spirituality as expresses itself invariably in the 
entire devotion of practical whole-souled philanthropy. 
" Robert Elsmere " died physically on the road to this 
higher understanding ; let his progressing spirit define 
miracles and he will not reiterate the words of Hume, 
" Miracles do not happen," but will explain how man's 
power derived from God is practically unlimited, but 
requires earnest and unceasing effort to unfold and 
apply. 



LECTURE V. 

EGYPTIAN THEOSOPHY. 

The very name of Egypt is associated in almost every 
mind not only with hoary antiquity, stupendous edifices, 
and marvelous learning, but above all with a system of 
religious thought so profound and amazing, that we 
may well ask whether Professor Smyth has not some 
justification for his astounding declaration that the 
Almighty Himself must have designed the Great Pyra- 
mid and made known the secret of His plan to Mel- 
chisedec or some equally wonderful personage who 
figures in biblical history. 

Though the fact is often disputed by half-informed 
and one-sided students, the mass of testimony already 
accumulated in favor of the real historical existence of 
Atlantis is far too great to be set aside by any Egyptolo- 
gist worthy the name of a scholar, who possesses him- 
self of this evidence and candidly examines it. The 
Atlantian hypothesis, or rather explanation, does away 
with the need of supernatural invention, and proves to 
us how, through long ages of gradual and unceasing 
developments, the human mind reached a height from 
which it could command such a view of the universe as 
that taken by the earliest illumined ones, who have left 
a sublime and seemingly indelible impress on the earth 



LECTURE V. 69 

itself in that most renowned of all far-famed countries, 
Egypt. One fact alone is sufficient to give much 
plausibility to the theory of an Atlantian conquest of 
Egypt, and that is that the most ancient monuments 
are by far the most magnificent. This would argue 
against evolution were we to accept it as a solitary 
unexplained fact, as orthodox people are glad to do. 
For the Theosophist, however, these monuments have 
a widely different meaning; they point not to divine 
favoritism, to the arbitrary selection of one here and 
one there as a result of sovereignty, but to the results 
of long ages of growth, culminating at length in the 
achievement of an almost complete mastery over the 
material side of nature. 

When the conquerors of the Atlantian race, the cele- 
brated red men of the distant past, came into Egypt, 
they doubtless found the inhabitants sunk in that form 
of idolatry commonly called nature worship, as it con- 
sisted of an adoration of natural forms below the human. 
The river Nile, the crocodile, the ox, the lotus flower, 
the dog, the cat, the serpent, birds, and many other 
objects in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, were the 
popular divinities. Now it must not be supposed that 
idolatry was worship of the inanimate or the material, 
though it may in some instances have degenerated into 
this ; it was originally a form of Spiritualism of a not 
very elevated type. The ancients in all the Orient rec- 
ognized an invisible life principle pervading the entire 
universe. They witnessed its expression in the multi- 
form varieties of existence all about them, and seeing one 
attribute of the life principle expressed in one creature, 



70 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

and some other attributes expressed elsewhere, they 
paid honor to the particular creatures who manifested 
the qualities they most dreaded or admired. Their wor- 
ship was, therefore, divided into two large and many 
small varieties. Good influences were praised with 
flowers, music, and peaceful rites of a poetic and ele- 
vating tendency ; but a fearful error was perpetuated 
when the priests of the old temples encouraged the 
propitiation of evil powers. From this arose the sacri- 
ficial customs of the most barbaric type, though min- 
gled with the desire to propitiate awful influences was 
coupled a desire to feed beneficent ones. 

The Spiritualism of primitive people was very child- 
ish, but very natural. They saw animals much larger 
and stronger than themselves waiting to devour them. 
They saw that birds and beasts of prey rarely attacked 
man unless hungry or irritated, and they concluded that 
in the unseen world intelligences whom they ignorantly 
deified were of similar disposition. Thus those who 
threw themselves or others into the Nile to feed the 
crocodiles, usually did so with no other end in view 
than the propitiation of an unseen power behind the 
crocodile, which would accept the sacrifice and stay the 
avenging sword of destruction threatening the land. 

Looking backward over the lapse of ages and trying 
to put ourselves in the place of our ancestors, we shall 
find much to shock, but more to encourage us as we 
seek to faithfully trace modern beliefs and practices to 
their ancient source. The vulgar religious notions of 
the West of to-day are perpetuations of antique Egyp- 
tian ideas and customs. Christianity is the old Egyp- 



LECTUKE V. 71 

tian religion in a new dress ; and while in ritualistic 
observances and questionable dogmas we can clearly 
trace the influence of the old popular belief entertained 
by the illiterate masses, we need never be at a loss to 
find abundant traces of that sublime Solar worship 
which, more than hero worship, was the 'crowning glory 
of the religion of the past. The Atlantians were Sun- 
worshipers, without doubt ; and the Great Pyramid of 
Gizeh was a temple to the Sun, the lord and giver of 
life. But the question now arises, What is meant by 
the Sun ? How did the enlightened among the ancients 
regard the central luminary ? Did it stand for the high- 
est principle of life in the universe and man, or was it 
merely, in their eyes, a material light, an orb of matter, 
with no soul or life, save as soul and life are terms used 
blindly by agnosticism ? 

Our answer to all such questions ever is : The Sun 
was a symbol of Deity and of the presiding rulers and 
guardian angels of systems. The great central Sun, in 
which the whole universe revolves, was not Alcyone, 
the centre of the Pleiades, around which the suns of 
several systems revolve ; neither was this greater Sun, 
Alcyone, identified with the Sun, which is but the centre 
of the small planetary system to which this little globe 
belongs. When Paul was preaching to the Athenians 
he reminded the Greeks of their own Theosophy de- 
rived directly from the Egyptians. His famous quota- 
tion, " In Him we live, move, and have our being," was 
distinctly a re-affirmation of the wisdom-religion of 
antiquity, which insisted before all else that the uni- 
verse revolves within the infinite embrace of one Eter- 



72 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

nal Spirit. This concept of pure Theosophy places 
Deity beyond all possible limitation, and disposes finally 
of all such puerilities as grow out of trying to harmon- 
ize the idea of a central sun as ordinarily understood, 
with the opposite idea of all-pervading Spirit. 

Having acknowledged the one Infinite Spirit as the 
only Eternal self-existent Life of all universes, the 
savans and illumined seers of the Egypt of old pointed 
out how, in the order of the heavens, a perfect system 
of government held sway. Nothing is left to chance ; 
law reigns, order prevails everywhere ; but there is no 
blind law of necessity such as that in which fatalists 
affect to believe. Intelligence is omniscient, omnipres- 
ent, omnipotent ; and this essential life of all that lives 
is the inmost spark of consciousness, the basic germ of 
every organism : " He in us, and we in Him." Behold- 
ing the exact order in which everything in nature 
moves, the wisdom-religionists of antiquity were of 
necessity evolutionists, but not in the sense of tracing 
everything to a material germ and then forward to a 
spiritual hereafter. Involution is indispensable to evo- 
lution; nothing can possibly be evolved or unrolled 
which has not been previously involved or inrolled. 
When gazing upon the myriad orbs which revolve in 
infinity, the astronomers and astrologers, who consti- 
tuted a powerful section of the Magi, concluded that 
there must be a perfect system of government in the 
heavens and throughout the universe. As they beheld 
some worlds brighter by far than others, and differing 
widely in magnitude, the one from the other, they 
thought, very reasonably, of the existence of celestial 



LECTURE V. 73 

hierarchies, all of which were said to be under the 
dominion of the Infinite. We must be careful not to 
confound their pure, essential Theism with their phe- 
nomenal Spiritualism, but diligently compare the one 
with the other. By so doing we shall find that absolute 
Theism relates to the sole uncaused cause of all things, 
— a reality which all scientists and philosophers of 
all schools must admit under some name. Whether 
they call it the Infinite Life, Power, Energy, or what 
they choose, they must admit an uncreated, self-existent 
Force which pervades the universe, which always was 
and ever will be ; while Spiritualism deals with finite 
revelations and expressions of the one life. These two 
systems are not in the least antagonistic one to the 
other ; they only appear so to those who jump at con- 
clusions, and whose immoderately hasty, and therefore 
shallow brain prevents them from regarding a subject 
from more than one point of view. 

As the Infinite Life, or grand Central Sun of Being, 
was regarded by the truly wise in ancient times as 
all-pervading and all-including, the word central really 
signified interior, while the phenomenal universe or 
expressional existence was the theatre for the display 
of individualized intelligences, continually struggling 
to manifest their latent potencies. As there must 
always be a limit to finite thought and 'description, and 
as some particular orb must necessarily mark the hori- 
zon of finite perception in any epoch, Alcyone, the 
centre of a universe, not of all universes, was regarded 
as the abiding-place of the most mighty Archangel dis- 
cernible by man. This most ancient spiritual being, 



74 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

whose individualized expression came within the range 
of astronomical observation, was the real Osiris of the 
Magi, while the popular Osiris was the angel of the 
lesser Sun, the sun of this planetary system only. The 
duality of life in its expression on any plane of exis- 
tence was a cardinal doctrine of the wisdom-religion. 
While Sophia (Wisdom) is a Greek feminine noun, and 
Wisdom is constantly alluded to under the guise of a 
woman in spiritual documents, this divine Wisdom was 
ever with her masculine consort Love. He (Love) did 
nothing alone in the work of creation ; neither did she 
(Wisdom) ever operate singly. An afterthought purely 
vicious, which grew up in periods of decadence, has 
found its way into more modern writings purporting to 
be of equal authority with the most ancient. These 
writings have been attempts to effect an impossible 
compromise between the real spiritual knowledge and 
sublimely exalted sentiment of the true adepts or initi- 
ates in Theosophy, and the coarse and brutal notions 
and practices of the vulgar throng of animalistic wor- 
shipers, who certainly did adore the male rather than 
the female, from the very cause assigned as a justifica- 
tion of the monstrous falsehood that woman is inferior 
to man and ever must be — because woman has less 
physical force than man and cannot make so successful 
a warrior. 

The Scriptures of the Hebrews and Christians, both 
of which collections of antique documents are largely 
derived from Egypt, set forth both the higher and the 
lower view of this subject of sexual equality or inequal- 
ity. Those portions of the Bible which evidently owe 



LECTUKE V. 75 

their origin to the wisdom-religion teach the absolute 
equality of the sexes ; they are not found to contain a 
single passage which can fairly be construed otherwise. 
The weaker portions of so-called " Holy Writ " agree 
with the current misconceptions of the periods in which 
they were written, and thus argue in favor of man's sole 
dominance and woman's cringing subservience. Man 
and woman are, in the divine natural order of the uni- 
verse, essentially equal. Have you ever met a man 
who was not a woman's son, or a woman who was not 
a man's daughter? If woman cannot exist without a 
father, and man cannot exist without a mother, how can 
one be above or below the other ? Osiris never appeared 
without his wife, the beautiful veiled Isis, in the ancient 
portraiture of life's dual essence and expression ; while 
from the union of the blessed two, the offspring Horus 
proceeded as a divine child, a celestial messenger, not 
miraculously though immaculately conceived and born. 
To understand the real difference between immaculate 
and miraculous conception, it is only necessary to in- 
quire into the proper meaning of terms, and we shall 
soon see how perfectly natural the one is and how 
highly improbable the other. True Theosophy is not 
incredible mystery ; it is divine wisdom, knowledge of 
life calculated to so enlighten all its possessors as to 
make them far better able than they would be without 
it, to stem the torrents of iniquity and promote the 
reign of righteousness on earth. 

As the Roman Catholic Church has, without doubt, 
perpetuated the wisdom-religion, though it has studi- 
ously concealed it, under an immense mass of dogmas 



76 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

and ceremonies, from the comprehension of the multi- 
tude, we shall find that as the centuries roll on and 
new doctrines are put forward as articles of faith, and 
special holidays celebrated in their honor, the veil is 
gradually lifting and the people are beginning to catch 
glimpses of a long-cloaked verity. The dogma of the 
immaculate conception, though at first sight it appears 
to all Protestants an unfounded superstition, should be 
hailed with delight by all lovers of natural morality. On 
the eighth day of December every year (styled in Catho- 
lic calendars Patronal Feast of the United States) it is 
declared from every Roman Catholic pulpit, that Mary, 
the mother of Jesus, was conceived, gestated, and born 
without sin, yet she had a father and a mother like any 
other child. True, some may reply, but the Church de- 
clares this was the result of a special act of divine grace 
and has occurred in no other instance, and was rendered 
necessary to bring the Messiah into the world in a spot- 
less body ; therefore the celebration of this feast is only 
another link in the old chain of superstition, and as 
such should be denounced. Our answer is, we are not 
advocating Roman Catholic interpretations of an ad- 
mitted fact in the Church; we are seeking its theo- 
sophical soul and origin; and disguise the truth as 
theologians may, or fail to see it as many do, the 
fact remains that the most conservative and miracle- 
upholding Church does teach that a child has been con- 
ceived, gestated, and born like all other children, and 
yet immaculately; and the priests of that Church do 
very often in their sermons on the 8th of December 
hold up Mary as an example to the world on account of 



LECTURE V. 77 

her spotless purity. Inconsistency, you may cry out; 
for if Mary was specially endowed by God as no other 
woman was, then how can other women take pattern 
from her when they are not thus endowed ? Again the 
answer must be given: truth and error are strangely 
mixed in all theology, and it is the work of Theosophy 
to disentangle them. He alone is a true Theosophist 
who is not afraid of any mixture of truth and error, but 
boldly works to sift the chaff from the wheat, and sever 
the gold from the alloy. This is not done by the sledge- 
hammer blows of the iconoclast, who looks not at all to 
the truth within, and seeing some tares would condemn 
an entire field as full of them. We need constructive, 
discriminating workers, who can impartially and dis- 
passionately distinguish between truth and falsehood. 
These, and these only, can collect material for the uni- 
versal church of the future, which will be enchained by 
no rigorous bonds, but will welcome to its embrace' all 
who are desirous of living for the spirit rather than for 
the flesh. 

We are quite ready to listen with approval to many 
objections to the dogma of the miraculous conception 
of Jesus ; but if in the case of Jesus the Church used 
the same argument it uses with regard to Mary, the im- 
maculate conception and the immaculateness of all that 
follows could be easily and usefully argued out. How 
many women are there who expect to become virgin 
mothers in the literal sense of the word virgin as 
made to apply to a state of celibacy only ? Here and 
there a disappointed, deluded person may be chasing 
such a will-o'-the-wisp ; but may not every girl and 



78 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

every boy be instructed to regard the procreative func- 
tion as sacred, and would not some sound, plain talk on 
the ancient phalic worship in its original purity, do 
much good in many quarters in the direction of elevat- 
ing the general idea of sexual relations above that of 
disgusting animality. Let the original truth on this 
subject be brought to light, let the natural relation of 
the sexes be purely and fairly dealt with, and an end 
will soon come to woman's degradation and enforced 
motherhood, to the birth of unwelcome children, and 
the multiplication of criminal tramps. Unless the wis- 
dom-religion be revealed in its application to daily life 
and social purity, Theosophy, as a system of dreamy 
speculation, may as well be relegated to the Oriental 
chairs of a few universities and fall into innocuous des- 
uetude, as the race engages its mind and taxes its brain 
with matters of every-day utility. 

True Theosophy is the underlying principle of all 
reform ; it is no antiquated or half-way measure teach- 
ing of things in no direct way pertaining to life here 
and now ; and though we have the greatest respect for 
Spiritualism, and can see in it a means for the highest 
elevation of humanity (though honesty compels us to 
admit it can be desecrated to the undoing of the race), 
we have no doubt but the excessive other-worldliness 
of the Egyptians led at length to the loss of power and 
grandeur which once made Egypt a land of light, though 
eventually its name became the synonym of darkness. 
According to Bunsen's Chronology, Egypt was ruled 
by divine rulers for a consecutive period of 13,900 
years; then came a race of demi-gods who ruled the 



LECTURE V. 79 

land ; then their reign was over, and the Pharaohs or 
native rulers wore the crown. After the Pharaoie 
period, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks, in succession, 
tyrannized over the dispossessed inhabitants, till of late 
English interference in Egypt has marked the latest 
stage in foreign conquest. Here again would we empha- 
size our most positive conviction that Atlantis was the 
source whence early Egypt derived her knowledge. 
The gods and goddesses were none other than the 
ancient rulers who came from the higher Atlantian 
race, and were looked upon as divinities by the people 
because of their superior spiritual as well as intellectual 
attainments. Gerald Massey, whose poetry is often 
exquisite, and whose fame as a scholar is by no means 
inconsiderable, has certainly ridden his favorite hobby- 
horse, Astro-Mythology, to death, when he has charac- 
terized Atlantis, "an American mare's nest." While 
he has without doubt collected a great amount of impor- 
tant information, and published it in his large works 
and lectures, how can astronomical occurrences account 
for the condition of the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, 
though the mythical theory be everywhere pressed into 
service, and forced to apply whether it will or not to 
everything everywhere ? Astronomical and astrological 
facts ought to be taken into proper consideration in an 
interpretation of the mythos ; but the true rendering 
of the subject is that the truly wise have ever known 
much more concerning the influence of world upon 
world, than the blind scoffers of to-day who, after 
repeating like parrots the simple formula, "the moon 
rules the tides," dismiss all, further knowledge of the 



80 STUDIES Ifr THEOSOPHY. 

interaction of planets and satellites as barbaric folly 
and gross, unworthy superstition. Egypt was never a 
genuine parent of science. She seems to have had no 
growth of her own from infancy to maturity ; but in 
the days of her childhood a powerful and wise race of 
conquering invaders came in upon her, and established 
themselves as her rulers and possessors. The original 
inhabitants were doubtless much in the condition of the 
American Indians and Australian aborigines at the time 
of the invasions of America and Australia by Europeans. 

As some slight account of the other-world theories of 
the Egyptians may be of peculiar interest to our readers, 
we will summarize the essential teachings of the " Book 
of the Dead " in the following brief sentences which are 
in no way quotations from any Egyptian manuscript, but 
simply a summing up of the general teaching concerning 
the soul and its future experiences. 

All the wisdom-religionists of the world have believed 
in pre-existence, though there has been considerable 
latitude among them concerning re-embodiment ; while 
transmigration may be looked upon as entirely misun- 
derstood by the unlearned at large. The soul is con- 
ceived of as a pure, innocent, spiritual essence, con- 
taining within itself all the potentialities of life. Its 
existence in paradise prior to any outward expression 
is exceedingly difficult to define, as it is in a state of 
non-reflectiveness. It lives and is content to live ; it 
does not inquire into the why and wherefore of any- 
thing ; it takes life as a matter of course, enjoying it in 
serene innocence. But the latent possibilities of the 
soul will not always remain dormant; they seek expres- 



LECTURE V. 81 

sion ; and when first this expression is found, the soul 
creates a lower self, much as the play of " Pygmalion 
and Galatea " represents the sculptor fashioning a mar- 
ble statue, endowing it with life derived from his own 
breath, and permitting it to choose for itself whether or 
no it will follow the desires of him who fashioned it. 

The mystery of our dual selfhood, of the two " I's " 
of which we are all conscious, is hard to deal with in 
satisfactory terms of language ; however, we all feel 
the fact of double desire and double consciousness. 
This secondary self, or lower nature, needs discipline, 
correction, education ; and when perfected becomes the 
transparent and thoroughly submissive vehicle through 
which the higher soul gains expression in all the fullness 
of the term. Man on earth may be in the first, second, 
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or even seventh stage of plane- 
tary expression, and the marvelous inequality of human 
life on earth, though all life is essentially one, and 
derived from one primal source, is accounted for from 
the fact that the seven planets, or spheres of progres- 
sion, are not regarded as orbs, but states. These states 
are represented, perhaps, on several planets at once, 
in the different degrees of manifested life common to 
them. At the same time, according to this view, the 
very lowest races now on earth must be considered as 
living through their first round of planetary experience 
on this earth, while the few exceptionally great teachers 
who have astonished the world by their marvelous 
spiritual and intellectual attainments, have manifested 
the sixth, and in the highest instances the seventh stage 
of expression. 



82 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Re-embodiment need not take place on the same 
planet ; it is possible to live through the whole of one 
round on one earth; thus, if one lives the life which 
may be called the rung A in the ladder of progression 
on this planet, he will live his B life on another world ; 
but if he is found unfit to progress through the inter- 
vening spiritual spheres to the next planet, by reason 
of the exceeding sensuousness of his desires, he is then 
compelled to take on another earthly form on this 
earth. Reincarnation on the same planet is also accom- 
plished through intense desire to do some special work, 
and thus is common only to the very high and the very 
low, using those terms with moral reference. To ex- 
plain this planetary chain to the satisfaction of all 
readers is impossible in the limited space at our dis- 
posal. Some doubt if every one would see it clearly if 
volumes were devoted to its elucidation. In brief, it is 
but this : All material worlds are ultimatums of spirit- 
ual worlds, and on any given planet at a given time 
several spiritual states are ultimated. There can be no 
beginning half-way up the ladder for some while others 
have to commence at the bottom ; consequently, those 
who are now high up were once low down ; those who 
are now low down will once be high up. The Atlan- 
tian race may have been a race of souls who had lived 
out their lower lives on some other planet, and were 
attracted to this earth in the natural order of sequence. 
When the time came for them to take a higher step, 
they were in consequence of growth superior to other 
races whom they were instrumental in elevating. Every 
planet affords sustenance during the various periods of 



LECTUBE V. 83 

its development for the varied races of men as well as 
animals. Life does not in the case of every unit com- 
mence its expression on one particular earth and remain 
with that earth till final perfection is reached ; but goes 
on from world to world. In this chain of experience 
all are treated equally; thus, if any are living an 
exalted life of attainment here, they have grown to 
preparedness for it by experiences elsewhere. It is 
most conducive to the general welfare of the planetary 
system, that different races should be on each planet 
simultaneously, though at the outset of a planet's career 
only the lowest expressions are to be found upon it : as 
it progresses it affords attraction for the higher races 
until at length it sustains seventh-race embodiments, 
and has by that time reached the meridian of its per- 
fection. This theory is at once reasonable and just, 
and most certainly deserves to be treated with the 
respect its dignity commands, not to be set aside with 
flippant sneer, and stupidly condemned because it does 
not coincide with the narrowest type of some one's par- 
ticular orthodoxy, which may be heterodoxy of the 
worst kind in the eyes of his next-door neighbor. 

The judgment scene in the court-room of Osiris is 
most graphically depicted in the Egyptian scriptures, 
from which it may be safely inferred the Apostle Paul 
borrowed the glowing imagery in which he indulged in 
his Epistle to the Corinthians, for there is no extant 
Hebrew records containing what he declares is " writ- 
ten in the Scriptures." Corinth, an influential seaport, 
contained a people who traded with Egypt, and thus it 
is easy to see that a man who, in the best sense of the 



84 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

phrase, endeavored to be "all things to all men" for the 
purpose of elevating men of all nationalities and creeds, 
would use the records most familiar to his auditors 
when instructing them on the subject of the resurrec- 
tion, concerning which the Hebrew scriptures are sin- 
gularly silent. This silence is best accounted for by 
the admission generally made by scholars, that when in 
Egypt the Israelites had become so thoroughly indoc- 
trinated with theories of post-mortem existence, that 
their best moral teachers and legislators found it need- 
ful to lay the utmost stress upon matters pertaining to 
the present life, as concerning the future world they 
were already well instructed. 

In the book of Daniel, — a splendid sample of Chal- 
dean Theosophy, — Nebuchadnezzar's degradation to 
the level of an animal and subsequent reinstatement 
as man — a man nobler after his descent than before 
it — may be studied with much profit by all interested. 

When the soul leaves the body it finds itself in an 
immaterial form closely akin to the vesture it has laid 
aside in general appearance, in. the audience chamber 
of the utterly impartial judge of the world. This judge 
is seated on an elevated dais or throne, after the manner 
of Eastern potentates. Before him are female divinities 
blindfolded, holding scales in their hands. In perfectly 
just balances they weigh every act of the soul sum- 
moned to judgment, whose fate is decided absolutely 
by his own acts. Taken out of its venerable archaic 
setting, this doctrine is a gem of the purest lustre. We 
may reset the stone, but nothing can dim its lustre nor 
any length of time wear out its suggestive usefulness. 



LECTURE V. 85 

What truth needs to be more impressed on the con- 
sciousness of each and every individual, than that man 
is the arbiter of his own destiny, and while judgment 
or sentence may appear to be pronounced from without, 
each individual really passes sentence upon himself? 
The higher spheres of paradise open to all who merit 
entrance therein, while the darkest states are but places 
of purification through suffering. Transmigration into 
the bodies of lower animals was never taught by the 
enlightened, but in every case the human entity is 
retained, and however a step may appear retrograde, 
all is in reality advance. 



LECTURE VI. 

EGYPTIAN THEOSOPHY (continued). — THE GREAT 

PYRAMID. 

So much has already been written and said, and that 
many times, concerning Egypt and almost everything 
pertaining to it, that we scarcely know whether we can 
offer anything in the least new on the present occasion. 
Our theme is old, and yet the interest which it calls 
forth, and the great demand at present for condensed 
printed information of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh 
and other ancient Egyptian marvels, has led us to de- 
termine to once more discourse on Egypt, and offer 
another lecture on its wonders to the reading public. 

To deal anything like fairly with an ancient theme, 
it is absolutely necessary to approach it with a mind 
entirely free from party bias, or one is almost certain to 
unconsciously indorse particular theories which have 
no-real justification in the facts presented. Scriptural 
prophecies and references are often immensely strained 
to support foregone conclusions, and with all respect 
for Piazzi Smyth and other justly noted men who have 
striven to make the pyramid testify in defence of or- 
thodox Christianity, we venture to affirm that all sec- 
tarian interpretations would considerably astonish the 
builders of this gigantic pile. Let us take a glimpse at 



LECTURE VI. 87 

the pyramid first, and then consider why and by whom 
it was erected. 

Pyramids are very common in Egypt ; they literally 
stud the delta of the Nile, and they all bear striking 
resemblance to each other. In outward * appearance 
they are quite similar, and the Great Pyramid differs 
from its younger and smaller brethren only by reason 
of more imposing proportions. When we enter the 
pyramids, however, we find an amazing difference, the 
Great Pyramid alone being conspicuous for the absence 
of all hieroglyphic inscriptions and for the elaborate 
interior arrangement, which is more than sufficient for 
a life-long study. Looking at the pyramid externally, 
in its present denuded condition, it is not very attrac- 
tive to the lovers of the simply picturesque. It ap- 
pears stern, majestic, imperial, forbidding, colossal in 
size, and hard as adamant in construction ; but it can 
scarcely be called beautiful. Imposing it is in the 
highest degree ; but the days of its loveliness were 
long ago, when coated with pure white casing-stones it 
shone with the radiance of spotless alabaster whenever 
the sun shone upon it. To-day its rugged, naked ex- 
terior suggests to us its long and tumultuous history. 
It looks like the country in which it stands, a splendid 
ruin, a magnificent wreck, and yet by no means an en- 
tire wreck or a perfect ruin. In its despoiled state it 
calls forth both reverence and regret ; but it evidences 
a solidity which defies the tempest, and declares it ever 
ready to reveal to those who will patiently listen, a 
marvelous record of days that are no more. 

Its proportions have frequently been given, but as 



88 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

any treatise on the subject would be imperfect without 
them, we repeat the most important. In height, the 
building is about 480 feet from base to apex. Its base 
line is 764 feet. Interiorly, from the entrance to the 
commencement of the grand gallery, the space measures 
about 2527 inches. The length of the grand gallery itself 
is 1881J inches. The passage between the grand gallery 
and the king's chamber is about 55 inches, while the 
dimensions of the king's chamber are about 412 inches 
in length, 206 in breadth, and 230 in height. These num- 
bers doubtless have astronomical and spiritual meanings, 
which the sincere student of Theosophy will soon be 
able to interpret. 

But however interesting and important its outward 
appearance may be, its history and significance are 
necessarily far more so. Why was such an edifice con- 
structed? and by whom? These are questions ever 
recurring and very difficult to answer unless we con- 
cede certain points with regard to the affairs of the 
ancient world, which quite a number of reputed schol- 
ars are unwilling to grant. Historically considered, 
Egypt is doubtless the most fruitful of all ancient lands 
to those who carry out a well-arranged programme of 
archaeological research. India yields far less than 
Egypt in the monumental line, however much she may 
have to teach us through her literature. But just here 
it is appropriate to call your attention to the fact that 
the Hermetic literature of Egypt is almost precisely 
the same as the Hindu Vedas, both in literary style and 
esoteric teaching. A striking resemblance to this litera- 
ture is notable also in the Book of Job, which scholars 



LECTURE VI. 89 

almost unitedly regard as the oldest portion of the 
Hebrew Scripture. In our search for the historic as 
well as the mystic key wherewith to unlock the mys- 
tery of ancient Egypt and its most stupendous monu- 
ment, we must carefully steer clear of two extremes of 
opinion, both of which are very prevalent. One set of 
extremists claim that from Egyptian discoveries they can 
prove the Christian gospels non-historical. This asser- 
tion we flatly contradict. The other class of extremists 
are orthodox evangelicals, whose desire is to account for 
the Great Pyramid in particular in a strictly miraculous 
manner. The school of thinkers, of which Gerald Mas- 
sey is an able representative, is so carried away with 
the exoteric symbolism of ancient Egypt, that state- 
ments are made by it, often most dogmatically, which 
are not by any means fully borne out by the actual 
facts in the case ; and this school deals so much with 
the purely astronomical element in the mythos, that it 
does not dwell sufficiently on the esoteric, or strictly 
spiritual teaching of which mythology is the outer shell. 
The school of Piazzi Smyth displays almost total igno- 
rance of the condition of the real ante-diluvian world ; 
an ignorance shared by most opponents of the theory 
of Atlantis, as put forward by Ignatius Donnelly in 
his truly marvelous and highly authentic work bearing 
that title. But in substantiation of the truth of the 
theory, it needs only to be said that nothing short of a 
direct divine miracle, totally supernatural in character, 
is ever brought forward by the orthodox Christian party 
to account for the Great Pyramid, independent of the 
supposition of an Atlantis or its practical working 



90 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

equivalent. That strange and valuable book (now out 
of print), " Art Magic," gives a very plausible, and in 
some respects ample, sketch of the Great Pyramid, who 
designed it, and for what purpose. The explanation in 
that treatise is purely theosophical, and to this we will 
refer more particularly before we close this lecture. 

The principal points of interest in connection with 
Egypt is that its oldest monuments are by far the finest. 
Egypt seems like unto the Adam of the second chapter 
of Genesis, who appeared first as a man and then gradu- 
ally deteriorated, instead of having been born an infant 
and then slowly ascended in stature and intelligence. 
Hadaama is the Hebrew equivalent of red men, and it 
is singular, to say the least, that the earliest notable 
persons of whose history we can find any traces in Egyp- 
tian literature, painting, or sculpture, appear to have 
belonged to a powerful red race. Now this red race 
seems to have invaded Egypt long, long ago, and to 
have suddenly established itself in power, introducing 
religion, sciences, and arts totally at variance with the 
crude barbaric condition of the original inhabitants. 
These powerful conquerors must have been the " gods " 
to whom James Freeman Clarke alluded in that unpar- 
alleled work of his, " Ten Great Religions," who are 
said to have reigned over Egypt for a continuous period 
of 13,900 years. Then came the reign of demi-gods, 
and later on the Pharaohs, or native princes, who in 
their turn were overthrown by the Persians, who were 
followed by Greeks, Romans, and Turks, until recently 
England has appeared in Egypt. Now " gods," or sons 
of God, otherwise designated sons of Osiris, sons of 



LECTURE VI. 91 

the Sun, and sons of light, are not angelic beings, who 
assume human form and intermarry with mortal women, 
as many fanciful interpreters of some parts of Genesis 
have assumed. They are simply unusually gifted men ; 
and with the gods always appear goddesses, or equally 
gifted women. 

These distinguished wise ones of the earth are not 
supernaturally endowed by arbitrary divine appoint- 
ment, but qualified adepts, the successful initiates into 
the genuine mysteries of being, who, in consequence, 
and as the necessary reward of diligent and long-con- 
tinued spiritual study, have brought themselves to a 
state of proficiency in both spiritual and intellectual 
matters, truly astounding to the uninitiated multitude. 
Melchisedec, to whom Professor Smyth, and others who 
share his views, make frequent reference, signifies not 
a solitary historical character, but whoever for the time 
being is the head of the inmost and profoundest spirit- 
ual order on earth. This order is perpetual, and is 
always composed of twelve males and twelve females, 
who, wherever they may be on earth, are always per- 
fectly and consciously united by means of absolute 
spiritual and thence electric sympathy. This order pos- 
sesses the knowledge expressed in the pyramid, which 
only the enlightened can interpret ; for, while astronomy, 
astrology, mathematics, and geometry are employed as 
its exponents, the inner meaning is so deep that a merely 
scientific interpretation fails to reveal the spiritual in- 
tent, and though doubtless correct in the main, where 
astronomy and metrology are concerned, fails totally 
where universal spiritual teaching is intended. 



92 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

The first step out of the fog of creedal error into the 
light of spiritual truth is, to realize that spiritual facts 
are outside of time and space ; therefore they are super- 
sensuous, super-historical, and super-theological. For 
this reason materialistic historians and theologians in- 
variably misapprehend because they limit them. The 
next step is an understanding of the science or law of 
exact correspondence, which is totally different from 
fanciful allegory, the difference consisting in corre- 
spondential emblems being universal, and always under- 
standable ; while fanciful -allegorization is necessarily 
dubious owing to the artificial and non-persistent char- 
acter of the objects employed as types. In order to 
make this portion of our subject plain we will cite 
an instance of correspondence, and contrast it with 
allegory. 

Jesus says, " Consider the lilies of the field." A lily 
is an accurate correspondential emblem, because a lily 
is a flower which, though appearing in several varieties 
of form, conveys a definite idea to the mind, as it 
always grows in the same way, and presents a similar 
appearance. A table or a chair, for instance, indeed 
any article of human manufacture, is not truly a corre- 
spondence, because it is nothing invariably persistent in 
nature, being incidental to man's condition or a part of 
his surroundings in one country and not in another. 
The highest of all correspondences are the parts of the 
human body which always appear in the same relations 
and exist for the same purpose. Another very high 
order of correspondences are the sun, moon, and stars, 
which always appear in the heavens, and perform regu- 



LECTURE VI. 93 

lar revolutions. Solar worship was originally the very 
highest and purest form of worship known to man. 
The ancients understood what Swedenborg in the 
eighteenth century again brought to light ; they knew 
and taught that the heavens were in the human form, 
and that in man is to be found a perfect correspondence 
to all the signs of the zodiac. In the wisdom-religion 
erf antiquity, Alcyone, the central star in the constella- 
tion known as the Pleiades, was the fitly chosen symbol 
of the Divine Mind, to which the immortal life of man 
directly corresponds. The sun in traveling around 
Alcyone passes through the twelve zodiacal signs once 
in every period of about 25,840 years, as the earth 
passes through the same twelve signs in its every 
annual revolution of a little more than 365 days. These 
twelve signs are corresponded to in man by the twelve 
orders or groups of intellectual faculties which can be 
distinctly traced and defined. The Grand Pyramid was 
designed to memorialize for all time the exact science of 
man in his relation to the universe, which its designer 
must have pretty thoroughly understood. The apex 
points directly to Alcyone, which symbolizes the ever- 
upward glancing of the soul to God, the parent of all 
intelligence. The interior construction of the pyramid 
is marvelous and unique, and suggests very much more 
than any simple metrologist, astronomer, or ordinary 
theologian can detect, as it portrays in perfect propor- 
tions the scenes through which every soul must pass 
during its journey from infancy to maturity. Only the 
true adepts of the highest rank, masons of the first 
order, can interpret the pyramid theosophically, as its 



94 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

occult meaning is deeply and purposely veiled from all 
others, though clearly revealed to those who can read 
the hieroglyphics of the universal lodge, which are 
simple and accurate geometrical proportions and mathe- 
matical figures. 

The entrance to the pyramid, as doubtless all are 
aware, is at the north side only, and while many endeav- 
ors had previously been made to force an entrance, El 
Mamoun was the first to enter within its walls ; whether 
through some unusual knowledge or by accident he 
discovered the entrance, is a matter of speculation. 
When the entrance is once found, exploration of the 
interior is not easy, for the method of construction is 
so strange, and the facilities for travel so meagre in 
many places, that it was long after the entrance was 
gained that any one was hazardous and successful 
enough to glean much definite information concerning 
it. El Mamoun's forced hole led to the descending 
entrance passage by means of a toilsome road; but 
there is, higher up, a perfect entrance passage, 985 
pyramid inches in length, that conducts the explorer 
immediately to a granite portcullis, which is at the junc- 
ture of the first ascending and first descending passages. 
The descending entrance passage leading to the subter- 
ranean chamber, the object of which seems deeply mys- 
terious, is, according to the most authentic estimation, 
about 4446 inches. The subterranean chamber is at a 
considerable distance above the high-level watermark of 
the Nile ; but before it is reached a deep well is encoun- 
tered, with which there is communication from the 
point of juncture of the first ascending passage (length 



LECTURE VI. 95 

1542 inches) with the grand gallery leading to the 
king's chamber, and the horizontal passage leading to 
the queen's chamber. The subterranean chamber was, 
without doubt, the scene of the profoundest mystic 
rites many thousands of years ago, for it is almost im- 
possible to doubt that the most sublime and awful 
religious ceremonies were carried on within its walls ; 
rites, the very mention of which would startle and con- 
found any save those whose knowledge of the deep 
things of Theosophy is infinitely beyond the average 
attainment of those who just venture to peep curiously 
over the brink of the occult. The grand gallery has 
been for several years past the subject of much inter- 
est, as its length, 1881J inches, has pointed, many think, 
with remarkable clearness to midsummer, 1882, when 
Lady Caithness and other eminent writers and thinkers 
consider anno domini (the age of the lord) came to an 
end and anno domince (the age of the lady) commenced. 
This, then, is woman's era, and man's monopoly is at 
an end. 

Let us take a hurried glance at the grand gallery, 
and gazing upon its majestic proportions see if we cannot 
gain some clew as to its inner meaning. This gallery is 
long, light, handsome, and vaulted ; but, like all other 
portions of the pyramid, utterly destitute of ornamen- 
tation. It terminates abruptly in a most extraordinary 
manner, as it leads directly into a narrow passage ex- 
tremely difficult to travel, into the king's chamber, which 
is doubtless the most important and significant of all 
the chambers in the pyramid, as it contains simply a lid- 
less sarcophagus, eminently suggestive of the unveiling 



96 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

of truth and the removal of every veil of mystery 
when the hierophant has crossed the mystic threshold 
and stands face to face with the naked truth in its sub- 
lime majesty. The passage through the difficult way 
may, however, be obviated by those who can soar into 
the chamber above, access to which can only be gained 
by ascension or flight. To those who reduce everything 
to a special chronology, the narrow and difficult passage 
signifies the present period through which the world is 
passing ; and this present age is certainly a time of uni- 
versal trial and unrest. Still there are those who can 
and do live serenely above the strife-laden atmosphere 
of the lower mind ; and these are sheltered in the sanc- 
tuary above, while others less spiritually advanced are 
toiling painfully along the weary road, till they at 
length gain admittance to the king's chamber, which 
typifies a new and brighter dispensation. 

To those, however, who see in the pyramid a uni- 
versal picture of man's effort and the soul's destiny, as 
well as the fate of this and all other planets, the pyra- 
midal architecture is far more deeply significant than 
it can be to the mere chronologist ; for all questions 
of time and place are far inferior to those relating to 
the progression of the human spirit everywhere. The 
metric system so carefully elaborated in the pyramid's 
construction, is to the occult student of far more mo- 
ment than a mere literal standard of earthly weights 
and measures. That reference is correctly made by Pro- 
fessor Smyth and others to the sacred cubit of Scripture, 
and that "false weights are an abomination to the Lord," 
we certainly indorse ; but our plea is for a higher and 



LECTURE VI. 97 

deeper interpretation of the pyramid than that given 
by those who, in their over-anxiety to prove the Bible 
literally true, well-nigh overlook its spiritual meaning. 

From a theosophical standpoint the pyramid is a 
monument of universal import, relating to the deepest 
truths of spirit. Standing as it does on the perfect 
square, it teaches that the only temple man can build 
acceptable to the Most High, is a temple whose founda- 
tions are perfect equity and universal brotherhood. 
The square stands for .absolute impartiality, and it is 
not a wrong use of language to speak of a square man, 
a square transaction, or even a square meal, when you 
intend to signify that people and things are fully as 
good as represented. "Acting on the square" is an ex- 
cellent expression; but it means brotherhood in the full- 
est sense of the word, and this is the foundation stone 
which the builders of false systems of political economy 
have rejected, which rulers have defied, but which is 
yet to become manifestly the headstone of the corner. 
This is the stone which grinds all injustice to powder 
in the day of its might, and breaks irretrievably all that 
comes in collision with it. 

The triangular form of the pyramid is emblematic 
of the perfect trinity, the three in one and one in three ; 
the perfect light whose color is white but which mani- 
fests itself in the threefold radiance of red, blue, and 
yellow. White is perfect purity, the all-including, but - 
as yet unmanifested life of being. Red is the masculine 
power of love, the generative principle. Gold is the 
color of wisdom, the mother element, in whose pure 
matrix the blue, significant of truth, is miraculously 



98 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

conceived and born. Osiris, Isis, and Horus are the 
threefold expression of the one infinite, eternal, name- 
less life which is above and yet within all, and in 
whom as well as by and through whom all existence 
is possible. 

The Egyptians, invariably sublime in their concep- 
tions, have in the Great Pyramid far exceeded all their 
other efforts ; and by Egyptians in this connection we 
do not mean the native dwellers on the soil, who at the 
time of the Atlantian conquest were slowly emerging 
from primitive barbarism ; but the descendants of those 
princes in wisdom who, whether of Atlantian or other 
physical descent, were the true sons of light by reason 
of their having completely subdued the flesh to the 
spirit and walked in the glory of an illumination which 
no mere external culture can supply. To trace out 
still a little further the object of the pyramid, let us 
glance at the telescopic gallery, a perfect natural tele- 
scope which stretches from the subterranean chamber 
to the entrance. This perfect telescope enabled the 
mystics who were engaged in astronomical as well as 
spiritual studies, to receive light directly from alpha 
draconis, which was the polar star 2170 B.C., and which 
is always the polar star at the time when some very 
great event of mystical import affects the earth. 2170 
B.C. is about the date of Noah's deluge, which, accord- 
ing to occult tradition, signified a complete remodelment 
of all things upon the earth, and previously in the spir- 
itual states connected with the earth. Professor Smyth 
and many others believe the pyramid to have been 
completed and dedicated in that year; others with 



LECTURE VI. 99 

whom we agree, for reasons known only to mystic fra- 
ternities, place the date nearly 26,000 years earlier, 
or about 30,000 years from the present time, when the 
position of the stars would have been identical with 
their places 2170 B.C. Be this as it may, the pyramid 
displays a knowledge of astronomy on the part of its 
designer wholly incompatible with the foundationless 
assumption of many that there was no knowledge in 
the world to speak of until very recently. Western 
sages are only just beginning to rediscover, and para- 
graphists to publish as new revelations, facts better 
understood in the ages long gone by than by any mod- 
ern scientist. 

The present age is, however, very notable for the 
almost universal dissemination of knowledge which 
characterizes it; for though the actual attainments of 
the past may, in some directions at least, have been 
positively greater than those of the present, facts cer- 
tainly have not been so universally diffused before, 
unless it may have been in the palmiest days of the 
long-sunken and well-nigh forgotten Atlantis, to whose 
actual existence the bed of the ocean which has derived 
its name from this mysterious country, irrefragably 
testifies. The polar star is ever the emblem of the 
highest perception of truth in man ; it is invariably 
associated with the keenest and loftiest intuition; and 
thus to turn literally toward the pole star was in the 
attitude of exact correspondence, to turn ever for light 
and guidance to the sense of right within ; and as the 
star in the heavens is so far above us that we have to 
direct our glance steadily upward, and therefore to 



100 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

divert it completely from the earth, so are we taught 
by wise spiritual direction, to become so enamored with 
whatever is above and beyond us that, forsaking carnal 
pleasures and sensuous delights in our eager quest of 
spiritual possession, we may rise effectually superior to 
the snares, entanglements, distresses, and diseases inci- 
dent to all that is conveyed in the terms sensuality and 
worldliness". It is only by the light of another and 
higher world that earthly business can be done ; " one 
world at a time " is an insane and unnatural expression, 
for which no justification is found anywhere in the uni- 
verse ; for where have we an example of a world that 
does not borrow light from a grander orb around which 
it perpetually revolves ? Still the time may come when 
worlds are self-luminous ; but then their relation to 
other orbs will only be the more intimate, the union 
more intense. 

A comparison of the Egyptian pyramids with pyra- 
mids in Central America furnishes many grave argu- 
ments in support of the conclusion we long ago arrived 
at, that in distant times, by means of Atlantis as a 
central land, communication was open between the 
Eastern and Western hemispheres. The pyramids of 
the Western world are, however, far inferior to the 
Egyptian. They are larger (one at Pueblo, New 
Mexico, covering about forty-seven acres of ground, 
while the great Egyptian pyramid covers no more than 
thirteen and one-half acres), but very much lower, 
thereby suggesting a debased type of architecture, defi- 
cient in grandeur and sublimity. Divinely tall is a 
poetic simile ; but who ever heard any thing or any one 



LECTURE VI. 101 

spoken of as divinely short ? It is a striking fact that 
very high buildings are inevitably connected with a 
high degree of culture. Where very few are civilized, a 
great artist may design a solitary, lofty pile in a widely 
extended district, but wherever civilization abounds, the 
general height of buildings is peculiarly notable, and 
there are no examples of pigmy races of men displaying 
great intellectual vigor. The great test of attainment 
is symmetry of form, good balance, fine equilibrium; 
and wherever we find the truest and most thorough 
culture, we shall behold harmony in proportion every- 
where as its concomitants. Thus are we led to admire 
the exquisite beauty of that Greek Theosophy, derived 
from Egypt, which will form the topic of other essays ; 
and though in succeeding chapters we shall have many 
words of unaffected praise to bestow on the Hindu 
religion, which has too often laid excessive stress on 
austerity, a careful comparison of the best features in 
all systems will conclusively prove that the highest 
teachers in all lands have advocated symmetry, i.e. 
perfect culture of morals, mind and body. 



LECTURE VII. 

ATLANTIS. 

While there may be no absolute historical proof 
limited by that history which commences with the 
period of Herodotus, popularly termed the father of 
history, who is, after all, only the father of the most 
modern history; while we say there may not be any 
direct historical proof of the existence of Atlantis to be 
received along such direct lines of modern history as 
modern scholars usually travel, yet the testimony of the 
very earth itself is sufficient to convince all intelligent 
students who are capable of making an examination of 
the bed of the ocean ; while all the mythologies of the 
world and the most ancient documents of the Orient, 
besides the traditions of the North American Indians 
and others, all go so far to substantiate Plato's story 
and to confirm the general line of affirmation in Igna- 
tius Donnelly's work entitled " Atlantis," that we feel 
certain an impartial and critical review of the subject 
on the part of all who are fair-minded, will bring stu- 
dents to the inevitable conclusion that there is, at least, 
a large probability that Atlantis was a fact and no 
fiction. 

From the spiritual side of life it is declared that the ex- 
istence of Atlantis is thoroughly well ascertained ; that 



LECTURE VII. 103 

there are multitudes in spirit life who positively know 
of its existence, that records are kept with most faithful 
accuracy, and that communications are forthcoming 
absolutely proving to those who are susceptible of such 
demonstration the fact of the antediluvian world. We 
will now call your attention directly to facts in the 
order in which we deem it advisable to present them, 
and then leave you with such assistance as you can 
derive from history and science, to indorse or repudiate 
the testimony here given. 

There can be no doubt whatever that the world is 
immeasurably older than six thousand years ; there can 
also be no doubt of man having existed upon the earth 
through periods which may almost be termed " count- 
less ages." We will not undertake to say how old the 
human race is ; it may have been millions of years since 
the first human being set foot upon the earth, for with- 
out doubt the story of the earth, as many geologists 
have affirmed, is a history of a constant succession of 
risings and fallings of surface. Many geologists have 
come to the conclusion that a million years is a very 
short time in the history of the world, for such periods 
as are sometimes called the Primary, the Secondary, and 
Tertiary, as well as such other periods as are termed 
the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, etc., 
have occupied ages upon ages. An eminent geologist in 
England expressed in our hearing, that all events which 
transpired less than eighty thousand years ago might be 
considered, geologically speaking, recent, eighty thou- 
sand years being as a mere span in the history of the 
earth, for since the days of the fire-mist, or the time of 



104 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the primitive chaos (the first expression from original 
cosmos), until the present hour, cycles of ages must 
have been consumed in the gradual development, peo- 
pling, and civilizing of this one little world. 

But it would be impossible in an address such as 
this to enter at any length upon the story of the 
world's gradual formation and development. It is not 
our purpose to carry you in thought through long geo- 
logical epochs or to compute their duration : we simply 
remind you that the earth develops through a succession 
of spiritual cycles; these cycles are each divided into 
twelve lesser cycles ordinarily termed ages, periods, or 
dispensations, each one occupying twenty-one hundred 
and seventy years or thereabouts. If the average dura- 
tion of each minor cycle is between twenty-one and 
twenty-two hundred years, and there are twelve of 
these minor cycles in the grand cycle which has been 
termed the grand year of the Pleiades, during which 
time the phenomenon is accomplished known as the 
precession of the equinoxes, you will perceive that a 
complete cycle embraces nearly twenty-six thousand 
years. We believe twenty-five thousand eight hundred 
and forty years is about the time of the duration of 
each grand cycle when computed with as much accuracy 
as is possible without entering upon the higher mathe- 
matics. 

During each period of nearly twenty-six thousand 
years land and water change their places upon earth, 
and while there may have been a " glacial period," there 
is no doubt whatever of there having been many glacial 
floods ; and while there may have been a time when the 



LECTURE VII. 105 

entire world, or at all events the greater portion of it, 
was under water, still all races have their stories of 
deluges which were simply local and which occurred 
long after the" earth was settled by man. When you 
were children you all heard the story of Noah's deluge, 
which, according to the chronology of the Pentateuch, 
took place about four thousand years ago ; but when 
you consider that these five books, commonly called the 
five books of Moses, only relate to a very small portion 
of the earth's surface, no mention being made in them 
of any other parts of the earth than portions of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa (nothing whatever being said concern- 
ing America or Australia, the eastern parts of Asia, the 
southern parts of Africa, or the western parts of Eu- 
rope, all this territory being apparently unknown to the 
writers), the story dealing only with the Israelites and 
with the nations with whom they fought and did busi- 
ness, making mention of no other territory than that 
associated with Israel's history, you become convinced 
that the flood which occurred nearly four thousand 
years ago, or thereabouts, was nothing more than a local 
deluge. The letter of the story undoubtedly referred 
to events which then occurred — doubtless some great 
natural upheaval, due to violent earthquakes, and the 
encroachment of the sea to an unusual extent upon the 
land; at the same time vast torrents of rain poured 
down day after day, causing great damage to life and 
property. But the deluge stories of all nations cer- 
tainly cannot have been founded upon the Israelitish 
record of a deluge that occurred comparatively recently 
and which was limited to a very narrow area. You 



106 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

will find on inquiry that many a nation which appar- 
ently never had communication with the Hebrews has 
preserved faithfully the record of a great deluge which 
occurred long, long ago ; and though it has been cus- 
tomary for many centuries among the orthodox both in 
Israel and Christendom, to deny everything that has 
appeared to conflict with the literal history of the Bible- 
no scientist, scholar, profound philosopher, or liberal 
religionist is in any way limited in his acceptance of 
universal testimony to an event occurring long ago, by 
any alleged divine revelation concerning the compara- 
tive youth of the world, as geology has gone far to 
prove that the world is millions of years old instead of 
only a few thousands, while testimony is accumulating 
daily proving man to be so ancient an inhabitant of the 
world that his real antiquity is a matter of doubt, it 
reaching so far into prehistoric ages. There can be no 
doubt whatsoever that the legends of all nations have 
been founded upon historical facts, that all mythologies 
have historical and biographical, as well as scientific, 
spiritual, and philosophical elements within them ; the 
question therefore at once arises, From what primal 
fount did the idea of a universal deluge enter into all 
ancient literature and possess the minds of all nations 
upon earth? 

The story of a universal deluge must necessarily have 
reference to a great catastrophe, which, even if it did 
not affect the entire world to the extent of overwhelm- 
ing the whole earth, must have so far affected the entire 
world as to have seriously interfered with the condition, 
occupation, and commerce of all peoples. 



LECTURE VII. 107 

There can be little doubt that the Aborigines, both of 
America and Australia, are the degenerate relics of once 
ancient and powerful peoples; no one can study the 
literature of the North American Indians, or their tradi- 
tions rather (for most of their testimony is conveyed 
orally, not by means of writing), or the remarkable cere- 
monies in which they engage connected with the inter- 
ment of their dead; no one can study their beliefs 
concerning the future world, and then peruse the Her- 
metic philosophy of Egypt, the Vedantic philosophy of 
Hindustan, or the classical literature of Greece and 
Rome, without coming to the conclusion that there is 
a truly wonderful similarity between the traditions of 
the untutored dwellers on the North American prairies 
and the most ancient and cultivated people upon earth. 
With such testimony as ancient scriptures, classical lore, 
and Indian tradition can supply, all deep students must 
become convinced that there was a time when Europe, 
America, and Asia were united as they are not now 
geographically, but as they surely will be to all intents 
and purposes, as fully if not more perfectly than they 
ever were in prehistoric times, when commerce and 
navigation have been brought to such perfection as to 
place a girdle of fraternity round the whole world. 

You all know that in many places islands have been 
known to suddenly disappear, especially in regions where 
there are active volcanoes and where earthquakes are 
frequent, and whenever an island has disappeared in 
one part of the sea, somewhere else an island has sud- 
denly — apparently miraculously — made its appearance. 
You all know that whenever the encroachments of the 



108 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

sea in some places are such as to inundate large tracts 
of country, submerge habitations, and drive the popula- 
tion inland, at that very time somewhere else large 
tracts of marshy land become dry, and in some places 
what was for ages the bed of the ocean becomes once 
more the habitation of humanity. In California, and 
all along the line of the Pacific coast, there is a ten- 
dency on the part of the sea to withdraw itself ; and 
though something has been done by the hand of man 
in "making land," human art and ingenuity having 
redeemed some land from the waters, yet instead of the 
sea when left to itself gaining upon the land, it is un- 
questionably assisting man's endeavors to extend the 
land. We predict the time will not be very long before 
the waters of the Pacific Ocean will retreat several 
miles from where they now usually flow, and there will 
arise a beautiful and fertile tract of country extending 
far into what is now the ocean. But on the extreme 
eastern coast, especially in the State of Maine, it is ob- 
served that many farms once high and dry are now 
under water. The water is constantly encroaching 
upon the eastern shores of the American continent and 
retreating from the western ; and as the march of civili- 
zation and progress is now constantly westward, it 
appears as though the current of human thought and 
enterprise naturally follows those natural currents which 
are causing new lands to rise in the West and the sea 
to encroach upon land that has grown old in the East. 

You know that it is necessary in Egypt for the Nile 
to overflow its banks every year and inundate the land, 
or it would not be capable of yielding crops ; hence the 



LECTURE VII. 109 

overflow of the waters of that " sacred " river is abso- 
lutely necessary to human sustenance. You also know 
after long periods of excessive cultivation it is necessary 
for the earth to have a period of rest ; for this reason it 
was wisely prescribed in the Jewish law that the land 
should keep its Sabbaths, every seventh year the land 
should be allowed to rest, as the seventh day every 
week was given to man for rest ; whenever the sabbatic 
law is ignored by farmers and agriculturists, the land 
gradually loses its fertility, as by over-cultivation and 
over-production it becomes sterile, just as man by over- 
exertion, the loss of natural sleep, and stated periods 
of refreshment and recuperation, loses his vigor and 
power to continue labor. 

Whenever the land has been excessively cultivated 
for a long period of time, and has supported very highly 
developed races of men, the phosphates have been gradu- 
ally removed from the soil into the sea ; and when those 
phosphates, which are necessary for all human and vege- 
table life, are removed from the soil, and the richest 
earth has been carried into the waters, the earth be- 
comes practically uninhabitable ; at such times the 
waters gradually encroach upon land and undermine 
large portions of the soil. There are many currents 
of water under the earth; there are also currents of 
fire. If you could see deep down into the bowels of the 
earth you would behold connections between interior 
portions of the earth far inland and the ocean; these 
are reasons for streams of fire belching forth as they 
sometimes do far from the centre of any specially vol- 
canic regions. You know there are warm and even 



110 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

boiling springs in very cold parts of the earth, in Ice- 
land for instance, proving that there is underneath the 
earth a close connection between rivers of fire and 
rivers of water; whenever earthquakes occur, the fire 
and the water under the earth have together produced 
the phenomena. Earthquakes and volcanoes are always 
near neighbors. Earthquakes are always common in 
volcanic regions ; where there are many earthquakes 
there are usually violent volcanic disturbances ; in many 
places where there are now frequent earthquakes there 
are ranges of extinct volcanoes. Students can discover 
over all the earth many indications that great upheavals 
and convulsions of nature, destroying large territories 
of land, have been brought about by the collision of 
fire and water, two great necessaries and yet two deadly 
enemies of man, if man's life is regarded only from a 
physical standpoint ; but when our eyes are turned 
toward the spiritual plan and purpose of being, and we 
realize that God manifests his presence in the storm ; 
that there is never a period of inundation or strife that 
is not followed by prosperity and calm ; when we realize 
the existence of a spiritual power beyond all external 
laws and forces, and attribute all to divine power, never 
to accident or chance, — nature becomes aglow with 
divine illumination, and the spirit of God is seen in 
every movement of the earth. From the standpoint of 
spiritual life we can observe the action of spiritual 
powers in peopling and then unpeopling the earth, in 
rebuilding districts long since rendered uninhabitable ; 
and we thereby come to know that every distinct centre 
of civilization is a direct response to some special need 



LECTURE VII. Ill 

in spiritual life, and that when any period or cycle ends, 
the first-fruits of that cycle are gathered in like gar- 
nered sheaves ; at such times all the souls belonging to 
that period are gathered to their home in spiritual 
life. 

If we had space to enter more fully into the laws of 
spiritual life, to explain the existence of families in the 
spiritual world, the distinctive origin of the various 
races of mankind, and prove how each race has its 
distinctive origin in spirit and afterward in material 
form ; that the negro did not spring from the Malay, 
nor the Malay from the Caucasian, but that each race 
represents a distinct order of spiritual life manifested 
on earth, — we could trace in the outward history of 
the world the reason why one race after another rises 
and falls, and why a place which has long been occupied 
by one people will afterward be occupied by another 
and totally dissimilar race, until after many such changes 
(generally brought about by natural convulsions of the 
most terrific character, also somewhat by wars and pesti- 
lence, particularly when the condition of the people has 
been corrupt) all nations blend into one ; then when all 
nations have blended into one, the paradisiacal or edenic 
condition of the world will be established on that hemi- 
sphere or in that zone where such union has been per- 
fected. There can be no doubt whatever that upon the 
land where civilized races are now living there were once ■ 
powerful warlike races, who gradually grew peaceful, 
then in an age of deterioration warlike again. These 
races came and went in obedience to a direct law of 
spiritual being which ordains that all events shall be 



112 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

accomplished through the precession of cycles of devel- 
opment. When an objection is made that there is not 
only progress but also retrogression, we answer, that 
when you can solve the spiritual problem of life, you 
will know that seeming retrogression as well as seeming 
progress is in reality only progress in the true sense of 
the word. 

What do we discover concerning the development of 
the earth itself ? Why, that everything advances, then 
retrogrades, and then goes forward again visibly. There 
is not a summer but is followed by a winter, day is 
always followed by night, there is never a period of 
activity that is not followed by rest ; the glory of the 
meridian sunlight is followed by a midnight. But why 
is it necessary that there should be a night following 
upon every day ? a winter after every summer ? Why 
is it necessary that men should sleep every night after 
a period of activity during the day? Why is it that 
empires fall after they have risen, that flowers fade and 
forms die so soon after their maturity ? Why is it in 
the history of every nation under heaven as well as in 
the progress of the earth itself there should be a night- 
time in every cycle as well as a day-time, rest as well 
as boundless activity ? Surely because during the day 
period of the cycle the activities are such that it be- 
comes necessary for rest to follow in order that human- 
ity may be prepared to ascend to a yet higher plane. 
Surely it is necessary that winter should come in order 
that the seeds may germinate in the earth, and that 
darkness follow light so that light be more appreciated. 
In all great pictures the background is dark and the 



LECTURE VII. 113 

foreground brilliant ; contrasts and reliefs are necessary 
to show forth the splendors of the artist's ideal ; shadow 
is necessary to reveal the glory of sunshine, adversity 
gives the highest understanding of pleasure. So in the 
entire development of the earth and of all races of men 
there must come a night-time as well as a day-time, a 
winter as well as a summer in the cycle of unfoldment. 

If, then, you behold a bright and brilliant day ending 
in a dark and awful night ; if clouds gather at eventide, 
and night follows rayless and starless ; if thunders, light- 
nings, and earthquake terminate a day of summer heat 
prolific of activity and prosperity, remember that that 
brilliant day not having been a perfect day, its very ac- 
tivities not being absolutely perfect, have begotten such 
conditions as must of necessity be removed through the 
agency and instrumentality of the darkness, rest, and 
storm that follow. 

As no spirit can die, no intelligence become extinct, 
no mind perish, no idea be lost, what matters it if the 
great empires of the world are buried in oblivion? 
What matters it if Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon 
shall some day be forgotten ? What matters it if Egypt, 
Chaldea, and Babylonia are now in ruins ? What matters 
it if along the banks of the Nile, the Ganges, the Eu- 
phrates, the Jordan, and all sacred rivers there are now 
little else than abodes of owls and bitterns where at one 
time were gorgeous temples and splendid palaces ? 

Though their outward forms be destroyed and are 
now but faded flowers and withered leaves, only the 
most external forms have died, only the chrysalides 
have been thrown off, while the spirit of the nations 



114 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

like butterflies of immortality have wended their way 
to brighter and loftier climes; and from that glorious 
realm of spirit whither human sense cannot ascend, 
triumphant mind reaches down to the earth, offering to 
take us all, though ever gradually, to its higher state. 

All graces of the past, all voices of ancient song, all 
ideas inspiring ancient artificers, are ever ready to re- 
habilitate themselves on earth with a splendor never 
known in days gone by. 

If the story of Atlantis is regarded by any as a fable, 
it must be accounted for in other ways than those which 
have already been resorted to to prove the narrative 
fabulous. The statement that Atlantis at one time oc- 
cupied what is now the Atlantic Ocean is borne out by 
the very name ; the ocean has taken its name from At- 
lantis, at one time an immense continent, but afterward, 
when reduced in size through gradual encroachments of 
the waters, only an island of moderate dimensions ; also 
from Atlas, who is said to have been a mighty ruler of 
Atlantis before the days of Poseidon, from whom the 
principal city of Atlantis took its name. This great 
king also gave his name to the central state of the 
united Atlantian empire of olden time, which was di- 
vided into ten kingdoms; he was afterward regarded 
as a god in mythology: great warriors and heroes of 
antiquity were always deified after passing from earth 
— even Romulus was deified and numbered among the 
gods because he was regarded as the founder of Rome, 
though it is supposed by many that his sudden death 
was a result of popular protest against his tyranny ; the 
"gods " therefore were not always immaculate. It was 



LECTURE VII. 115 

customary in olden times to give the names of great 
and mighty warriors to the countries they ruled, as 
well as to worship them as divinities after their passing 
into spirit life. We say, then, the very name Atlantic, 
derived from Atlantis and from Atlas, will have to be 
accounted for in ways not yet attempted if the story 
of Atlantis is considered a myth; while the deep-sea 
soundings of the vessels " Dolphin," " Challenger," and 
others in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean have abso- 
lutely proved the assertion of Plato, made more than 
twenty-three hundred years ago, reiterated from the 
words of his ancestor Solon, the great lawgiver of 
Athens, who flourished about six hundred years before 
the commencement of the Christian era, as the ocean 
district bordering upon the northwestern coast of Africa 
and extending as far as the British Islands is filled with 
volcanic debris which may be correctly termed " mud " 
produced by sunken land. It is an absolutely attested 
fact that the entire bed of the Atlantic Ocean bordering 
upon the coast of Africa and Europe is at the present 
time in such a condition as to prove conclusively that 
violent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have de- 
stroyed countries in that region once extending far 
toward the shore of what is now America, while the 
peaks of the Azores off the northwestern coast of Africa 
are without doubt the mountain tops of the highest ele- 
vations upon Atlantis. The circular motion of the 
Gulf Stream is another witness to Atlantis, as it was 
doubtless occasioned by the water flowing around the 
island of Atlantis taking an almost circular form from 
that circumstance ; while before Atlantis became an 



116 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

island (that is while it was yet a large continent), 
there being no outlet for the waters of the southern 
sea into the northern ocean, extreme cold prevailed in 
the north of Europe and other northern climes, which 
cold has considerably abated through the agency of the 
Gulf Stream. 

The glacial period in Europe was no doubt occa- 
sioned by the cold northern ocean being shut off from 
the waters of the warm southern seas ; but as the con- 
tinent of Atlantis gradually wore away, as the encroach- 
ments of the sea steadily diminished its dimensions and 
reduced it to an island, the Gulf Stream, flowing from 
the southern seas around Atlantis, warmed the waters 
of the northern ocean, and by so doing caused that 
melting of the ice which is supposed by many geologists 
to have taken place from twelve thousand to twenty 
thousand years before the present time. The epoch 
when Atlantis was submerged must have fully termi- 
nated the glacial period in the northern parts of North 
America and Europe, while the more southern portions 
of these continents must have had their glacial era, if 
at all, at a period of almost incalculable antiquity. 

Let the reader try to imagine himself a citizen of 
the ancient world occupying a position on Atlantis, say 
twenty-five thousand years ago, before the continent 
had been reduced to an island, for at that time Atlantis 
was physically connected with both the Eastern and 
Western Hemispheres. Instead of there being then 
two large hemispheres, the Eastern and the Western, as 
now, with two immense oceans between them, there 
was an immense middle continent, that included con- 



LECTURE VII. 117 

siderable portions of what are now known as the East- 
ern and Western Hemispheres. Time came gradu- 
ally when the land was split by earthquakes and the 
gradual encroachment of the sea, which caused land to 
rise from the ocean both on the eastern and western 
sides of Atlantis; as the land went down more and 
more in the central continent, it rose correspondingly 
on either side. In this way both the western parts of 
the Eastern Hemisphere and the eastern parts of the 
Western Hemisphere were gradually formed prior to 
the time of the submergence of Atlantis, but did not 
assume anything like their present size till after that 
event. 

This fact will account for the presence of widely 
different races in the opposite hemispheres, races who 
certainly were not indigenous to the soil. There is, more- 
over, a wonderful similarity in both the fauna and the 
flora of the Eastern and the Western world ; these 
facts, together with that perfect unity of tradition in 
religious and many other respects prevailing in the 
most ancient portions of the Eastern and the most 
ancient portions of the Western Hemisphere prove very 
strongly the once union of both hemispheres. 

There can be no doubt that after Atlantis had been 
to a large degree separated from the mainland, ridges 
remained connecting it with the Eastern* Hemisphere 
on the one hand, and with the Western on the other. 
The course of those ridges can now be distinctly traced, 
as they are not very far below the bed of the Atlantic 
Ocean ; across these ridges men and animals must have 
passed from Atlantis to the Eastern and the Western 



118 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

world. The inhabitants of Atlantis and its animals 
could pass easily along the eastern ridge into Africa, 
thence into Europe, and thence into Asia ; and along 
the western ridge they could with equal ease pass into 
America : this circumstance readily accounts for the 
close resemblance still existing between the peoples, 
animals, and vegetation of both hemispheres ; such simi- 
larity cannot be accounted for satisfactorily in any 
other way. 

You will also remember that the earliest stories of 
Egypt are tales of unparalleled glory and magnificence. 
Egypt was at one time the most highly civilized colony 
of Atlantis ; long before the days of the Pharaohs or 
any native Egyptian rulers, you are told the country 
was ruled by "gods." Many and many an ancient 
Egyptian tradition and inscription proves that they 
were great and mighty men who ruled in prehistoric 
times ; they are represented in tradition as of a reddish 
hue. The Hebrew narrative ultimately traceable to 
Moses, who was educated at the court of Pharaoh, and 
therefore acquainted with alLthe wonders of Egypt, 
declares that red men were specially created in Eden 
by God : now the Atlantians were doubtless a red race, 
and an exceedingly powerful and highly developed race. 
The letter of the second chapter of Genesis contains, 
no doubt, a record of Atlantis as well as the allegorical 
spiritual truth we have endeavored to bring out further 
along in this volume. There are very many traditions 
in Egypt describing the overrunning of the land in 
very ancient times by a race of powerful and mighty 
red people. When the Spaniards visited Peru many 



LECTURE VII. 119 

centuries ago, they found Solar worship there in its 
original purity, agreeing perfectly with the ancient 
Solar worship of Egypt, Persia, and India. Now Solar 
worship is the true worship of antiquity ; and you can 
account for the similarity between the Peruvian and 
Egyptian theologies satisfactorily in no other way than 
by admitting the influence of Atlantians who crossed 
the connecting ridges now under water, and traveled 
to Egypt on the one side and to America on the other, 
leaving in both hemispheres almost ineradicable im- 
pressions of their civilization. 

Before as well as after the ridges were submerged, 
the arts of navigation were thoroughly understood in 
the ancient world. In the brightest days of Atlantis, 
in its palmiest period of palmy civilization, the Atlan- 
tians or their descendants must have built the pyramids 
of Egypt, and also those wonderful pyramids of Cen- 
tral America, which, though not quite so perfect in 
form, bear a close resemblance to those of Egypt. Pro- 
fessor Smythe has declared that the Great Pyramid of 
Egypt was probably built twenty-one hundred and 
seventy years before the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era, because at that time Alpha Draconis was the 
polar star, which must then have shone directly down 
the shaft of the pyramid; and the formation of the 
galleries in the pyramid proves conclusively to astron- 
omers that it was built for astronomical as well as 
religious and other purposes. The telescopic gallery 
evidently was intended for purposes of stellar observa- 
tion ; but it is known that more than twenty thousand 
years before that date Alpha Draconis was also the 



120 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

polar star ; may not the pyramid have been erected at 
that much earlier period ? 

Egypt had certainly begun to deteriorate four thou- 
sand years ago ; for you find all marks of its highest 
civilization carrying you back to a much earlier date 
than four thousand years ago. Now as the pyramid 
contains in its secret and still undiscovered chambers a 
great deal more than has been discovered in the parts 
already explored and concerning which so much has 
already been said and written, we declare that evidence 
points to the fact that the greatest pyramids of Egypt 
are between twenty-five thousand and thirty thousand 
years of age, and therefore carry you back to a period 
of such remote antiquity as places them side by side 
with the buried marvels of Atlantis. At the time when 
Atlantis was in the height of its glory, there was, doubt- 
less, a high degree of civilization in Central America, 
and in various portions of South America, extending 
also some distance to the north, surpassing any civiliza- 
tion of to-day, but not reaching to the height of the 
purest civilization of the near future, when it shall have 
reached its culmination, which will probably be less 
than one hundred years from the present time. Then 
will come in the natural order of development, the co- 
operative commonwealth, so perfectly outlined by Bel- 
lamy in " Looking Backward." 

It is stated to us by those who claim to know, that 
about twenty thousand years ago Atlantis was at the 
height of its power and sovereignty, also from eight 
thousand to ten thousand years before that time, carry- 
ing us back from twenty thousand to thirty thousand 



LECTURE VII. 121 

years. After a long period of ever-increasing prosper- 
ity, the land and its inhabitants gradually began to 
deteriorate and decline, until at last, nine thousand 
years or more before the days of Solon, according to his 
account, Atlantis was overthrown, as Plato graphically 
and perhaps somewhat poetically and extravagantly 
states, "in a single day and night." 

Before that time the better element of the people had 
emigrated to other shores, leaving the land in possession 
of the less enlightened. Races die soon after the emi- 
gration of their better element, while those cut off from 
all other races, left alone in solitary grandeur, soon pine 
and expire in their isolation. Probably the North Amer- 
ican Indians and other aborigines have deteriorated 
because of the isolation brought about by those natural 
catastrophes which separated the inhabitants of America 
from all the rest of the world. 

When nations begin to emigrate, it is an evidence 
that their country is on the declining wave, for then 
the power and vigor of the nation goes forth to other 
lands. It may be to-day that Ireland as an island de- 
clines ; but all the representative element of the Hiber- 
nian race is within the American people. It may be 
said that England is declining ; but the very backbone 
of Anglo-Saxon civilization is in the Canadas, Australia, 
New Zealand, South Africa, and other parts of the ris- 
ing world. It may be that Germany will soon decline ; 
but the best elements of the Teutonic race cross the 
ocean and form an important factor in the life of 
the United States. If France and Italy decline, it 
will be because the best elements of the French and 



122 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Italian races, through varying circumstances, have de- 
parted to other lands and left the mother country 
barren. 

There is nothing really lost when a land is over- 
thrown. It was not in its highest glory that Greece 
was swallowed up by Rome. Greece had deteriorated, 
and Spartan bravery was no longer the watchword of 
the hour. 

When Rome fell she was no longer the mistress of 
the world, but enfeebled and decrepit, given over to 
vice, and so emasculated that she retained but the 
skeleton of her former grandeur. When the fair tem- 
ple of Jerusalem was destroyed and the Israelites driven 
out over all the earth, whatever was characteristic of 
the Hebrew race was carried by the exiled Hebrews 
into all countries whither they roamed, and they still 
perform their " messianic mission " in all parts of the 
world. 

If the splendors of the days of David and Solomon 
have long since departed from the sacred shrines of 
Israel, if India, China, and Persia are no longer what 
once they were, all that made them great, all nobility 
of thought, all true culture, all their marvels of art had 
fled long before their destruction, and these are rehabil- 
itated in the new forms of the modern world ; all civil- 
ization rises as the phoenix rose, a young bird from the 
ashes of its parent. 

There is no retrogression, no decline, no failure in 
the purposes of the Eternal ; even were there no visible 
indication upon this particular earth that the glories of 
the olden days are renew r ed, still when you turn your 



LECTURE VII. 123 

eyes to the star-bespangled heavens by night and gaze 
on other planets, the countless starry orbs may be to- 
day (some of them) the scenes of the higher activities 
of those who have been transported thither from this 
earth, there to express higher forms and engage in 
larger activities than they could conceive of before their 
earthly career was ended. Arcadia, Eden, Hesperides, 
the Olympian Heights, the Islands of the Gods, and all 
the sacred places whose names after a time were inter- 
woven into Greek literature, expressed in mythology and 
religion in the cultured Greek world reminiscences of 
Atlantis. When Plato told his story, he had gathered 
it from Solon, who had obtained it from the priests of 
Egypt ; not from the Alexandrian library, — for it was 
told before the city of Alexandria was founded, and 
came from those learned cults or secret orders of the 
priesthood, who afterward committed it to writing. It 
is certain that books existed before libraries or book- 
cases, and afterward in the Alexandrian library ancient 
knowledge was preserved. The world of letters had in 
its possession accessible ancient documents pertaining 
to Atlantis until the time when this library was de- 
stroyed, several centuries after the commencement of 
the Christian era, through the vandalism and bigotry of 
the Mussulmans. In that library was registered and 
perpetuated the ancient knowledge of Egypt, its genius, 
literature, and art, extending to far ancient times. 
Knowledge has always been preserved in ancient orders, 
the mysteries of knowledge being always perpetuated 
in many a rite and symbol. In very ancient times 
mystic orders in their wisdom deemed it unwise to 



124 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

place much of their learning in any outward form to 
insure its preservation ; but later on the Alexandrian 
library contained an embodiment of that knowledge 
which Solon received, not from books, but direct from 
the priests of Sais at the time when Egypt was a 
Grecian colony. Under Grecian rule the richest treas- 
ures of Egyptian knowledge were conveyed to the 
Grecian philosophers and afterward transmitted by 
them to the world at large, though but imperfectly. 
The story of Atlantis, recorded by Plato and received 
by him from Solon (one of the greatest lawgivers the 
world has ever known), has lately been fully corrobo- 
rated by the bed of the ocean, stones and the very mud 
under the sea confirming the statements made by the 
learned of antiquity concerning this fair and wondrous 
land. 

The Atlantians were, unquestionably, those people of 
olden time who were called gods and goddesses, and 
who, because of their godlike form, were termed giants 
among men. Atlantian men and women at one period 
— and that the highest in their career — without doubt 
enjoyed perfect equality, so that their government took 
that dual form in which it must have appeared at the 
time when Egypt recognized the divine duality personi- 
fied in Osiris and Isis : both in government and religion 
the feminine principle was acknowledged as deserving 
worship and admiration equal with that accorded to the 
male. 

When Bulwer-Lytton wrote his " Coming Race," he 
made his hero say that he had traveled in subterranean 
countries, and had there been introduced to people 



LECTURE VII. 125 

whose government, religion, and general customs were 
far in advance of those of modern Europe and Amer- 
ica : not only did Lytton look forward to the future, he 
reviewed the past history of Atlantis in the popular 
guise of a fascinating romance. In that book is por- 
trayed that higher potency and dominion of the human 
mind over the entire earth and atmosphere which, in a 
period of sovereign and enlightened spirituality, enables 
man to prove himself indeed the lord and ruler of cre- 
ation. Those wonderful air-boats in which the Vril-Ya 
traveled, those wings which they wore upon their 
shoulders as useful (not ornamental) appendages, were 
the literal originals of the wings upon the shoulders of 
the cherubs and angels in Christian art: the winged 
beings represented to the world by artists were not men 
and women whose wings grew out naturally from their 
shoulders, but men and women thoroughly versed in 
the art of aerial navigation. When Jules Verne, for 
writing " Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea," 
and other sensational works peculiarly pleasing to 
boys, received a gold medal from the French Academy 
of Sciences for his perfectly philosophical reasoning, it 
was because he not only gave rein to imagination, but, 
following upon the traditions and inspiration of the 
past, reproduced to a considerable degree in his stories 
a record of the ancient world, even though strongly 
colored and largely imbued with the prophetic and 
romantic spirit. 

When the " Arabian Nights' Entertainments " were 
conceived, crowds of travelers would gather together 
to hear the praises of ancient people and ancient times 



126 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

recited by itinerants, who entertained the marvel-loving 
Eastern public by reciting to them the wonders per- 
formed by the use of Aladdin's lamp and other marvels 
of the far Orient. All such stories are but highly col- 
ored tales of a far past when a part of the world was 
brighter than it now is. In stories of the long ago, in 
many a wonder of architecture, in splendid tapering 
spires and minarets pointing to the sky, in gorgeous 
gardens upon the roofs of Oriental houses, in majestic 
palaces and cities paved with gold, from Noah's ark, 
the simplest and rudest structure, to the symmetrical 
and magnificent temple of Solomon — in all we may 
trace some recollection of Atlantis. Floods sweeping 
over the land, bringing utter desolation and disaster, 
and the ark resting upon the water, in which a remnant 
of the human family were saved, carry us back to a 
period when Atlantis was in all its power and glory, a 
very paradise upon earth, and then to the sudden end- 
ing of its bright, hot, glorious day, when the storm 
cloud arose, followed by a dark and awful night of utter 
desolation. 

But from out that splendid land long since sub- 
merged there has arisen to the world of souls a glorious 
company already engaged in enlightening mankind to 
build a new Atlantis, to form a brighter colony than 
that of yore. And when America is again united with 
the Orient, the ocean bridged by perfect navigation ; 
when commerce and the arts shall blend all nations in 
the pure chain of fraternal relation, and the new repub- 
lic of peace shall be formed, then will the time come 
when man shall reach out more fully than of old toward 



LECTURE VII. 127 

perfection, and rise to sublimer heights than Atlantis 
ever attained. To-day men realize the prophecy, but 
only in its dawning, the budding, not yet the opening 
of the flower. 

There is no retrogression in nature ; all is progress. 
But as everywhere summer and winter, night and day, 
light and shade, must alternate, the most appalling 
catastrophes which overwhelm the earth are forever 
fulfilling the purposes of the Eternal Good. 



Aspiration. 



Eternal Fountain of all beneficence, Thou who 
art the orderer and ruler of the universe, Thou in 
whose hand are all the events of life ; Thou who dost 
ordain the rising of the morning sun and the shadows 
of the evening ; Thou who dost call forth the light 
from its hiding-place, bidding it illumine the world 
with radiance ; Thou who dost fold the curtains of the 
night about Thy sleeping children and invite them to 
repose ; Thou who dost speak unto us in every sunny 
glance which lights the mountain and valley, in every 
star-beam that pours down its radiance from the glori- 
ous heights above ; Thou who dost speak in nature's 
myriad tongues, inviting man to Thee with all her 
countlesss voices ; Thou who dost allure the world to 
truth by every form of nature's loveliness displayed in 
all the changing seasons ; for all the beauties of the 
earth, for all the loveliness of sea and sky, — we would 
give praises unto Thee ! 



128 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Eternal fount and sustainer of our being, in the 
glories of creation, in the wonders of preservation, in 
the marvels of reproduction, Thy power do we behold ; 
and when destruction spreads its gloom about us and 
works of grandeur are reduced to their parent ashes, 
then from out the pile of ashes cold Thou dost revive 
the world; while the phoenix, arising from out the 
newly kindled flame, jubilant and immortal, typifies the 
resurrection of the spirit from the tomb of sense, as- 
cending beyond all death forever. 

If empires rise, then fall in splendid ruins ; if magni- 
ficence departs and decay takes possession of ancient 
palaces and temples; if all over the far Orient the 
lights have gone out and the altars are discarded where 
once Thou wert worshiped under the sacred name of 
Brahm and where Thy servants were acknowledged as 
the messengers of Vishnu the preserver ; if all these 
splendors faded into story as the glories of the Orient 
were reduced to a name ; if over Persia and Hindustan, 
Greece, Rome, and Egypt the mantle of destruction and 
the pall of darkness has fallen, then from out the depths 
of all the buried cities of the earth Thou dost cause the 
light of truth to arise, and from the buried land beneath 
the sea Thou dost summon Thy witnesses, until the 
rocks are eloquent with Thy praises and the stones cry 
out concerning Thy wondrous works of old. 

If, with the voices of inanimate nature, even with the 
voices of the stones which men have piled together, the 
spirit of wisdom calls us that we may receive instruction, 
oh ! may we in the midst of Thy living temples of human- 
ity, turn from the dumb idols of wood and stone, from 



LECTURE VII. 129 

the temples that lie in ruins, from the deserted banquet 
halls of ancient kings, to the glory of those immortal 
habitations which can never be overthrown and to the 
splendors of the life of those souls who abide forever 
in Thy keeping. 

Whatsoever storms sweep over the earth ; whatsoever 
waves inundate the land; whatsoever quaking of the 
earth removes the cities of the plains ; whatsoever fire 
and smoke from burning mountains shall desolate hu- 
man habitations, may we know that Thou art in the 
whirlwind and the storm, that the earthquake is Thy 
messenger, the flood Thy servant, and that all things 
working together for good will at length reveal to all 
Thy plan, which orders all things for the best. 

As we turn from the ancient Eden to the Paradise 
that will yet be revealed ; as from scanning the history 
of the past our eyes turn prayerfully and hopefully 
towards the future, as we gaze toward republics which 
shall yet be established, toward the purer religion, the 
milder government and juster laws which shall yet be- 
token the presence of truth enthroned among humanity, 
may we sigh not for what is gone, but prepare for what 
is yet to be, knowing that the future glories of the earth 
and the future destiny of all human spirits shall sur- 
pass all that prophetic eyes have seen, and transcend a 
thousand-fold all wonders historians may record. 

And thus in earnest faith, in the confidence of love, in 
abiding trust in Thine infinite goodness, may our hearts 
rest secure : may we never fail nor falter, but fulfill our 
mission faithfully by proclaiming truth to earth and 
spreading it in perfect love among all humanity. 



LECTURE VIII. 

FRAGMENTS OF FORGOTTEN HISTORY; OR, ATLANTIS 

" RECONSTRUCTED." 

Many persons inquire : " What good do you think 
you or any one can accomplish by digging up ancient 
fossils and speaking of remote antiquity, of races of 
men who have been buried in oblivion for thousands 
of years? Why not confine yourselves to practical, 
present-day topics? Why not deal with the burning 
questions of the age, take up the labor movement or 
some other matter of vital importance to society as at 
present organized ? " 

We answer, that no scientific mind ever thinks of 
doubting the desirability of studying the history of man 
in the far past, the science of geology and kindred 
sciences being regarded by all as matters of the utmost 
importance in a liberal and progressive education to- 
day. While geology deals with very ancient fossils ; 
while this natural science carries us back to remote 
antiquity and teaches us how the earth has gradually 
developed from primitive chaos until it now assumes 
an almost spherical form; while we are told of the 
habits of the very earliest men — yea, and of even the 
radiata, who swarmed long before the earth could give 
sustenance to man ; while " evolution " embraces a study 



LECTUKE VIII. 131 

of what has been going on for countless aeons, and all 
students of nature or of the history of the globe are 
obliged to go back through almost incalculable periods 
of time that they may accumulate the testimony which 
the rocks and the seas will give, as to how God made 
the world; as the knowledge of cosmogony is one of 
the most interesting and important topics of the day, 
we may well ask, why study geology? Why discuss 
evolution? The answer comes, we can both regulate 
the present and prepare for the future in the light of 
past experience. 

While it is true, indeed, that a wise and doubtless 
highly inspired apostle recommended his hearers and 
readers to "forget the things which are behind" in 
their zeal to " press on to the things which are before " ; 
while, without doubt, there is sage counsel in the com- 
mandment, " Look forward, not backward," still before 
we can take a forward glance we are often obliged to 
review past years, and no one can say that experience 
is nothing or that the knowledge of what has been may 
not be most serviceable to those who desire to correct 
the errors while they would follow all the good exam- 
ples of the past. 

All ancient history teaches us the most valuable and 
important lessons. By studying the doings of ancient 
peoples we are enabled to see ourselves as others were 
in similar conditions to those in which we now are. 
And as we learn that all ancient civilizations came to 
naught, that all ancient empires were at length over- 
thrown, that the most splendid achievements of past 
centuries were hurried into oblivion, and that civilization 



132 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

seemed only to reach its highest point to be overthrown, 
we may well inquire, what is that wonderfully myste- 
rious and seemingly awful law which ordains that as 
soon as the flowers are perfect they should begin to 
wither, and that as soon as the fruit is fully ripened 
it should fall from the tree ? 

In a beautiful hymn often sung the statement is made 
most sublimely, — 

" We do not die — we cannot die ; 
We only change our state of life 
WTien these earth temples fall and lie 
Unmoving 'mid the world's wild strife ; " 

and then the hymn closes with the magnificent refrain, — 

" Our friends have only changed, have sped 
From lower homes to homes above." 

As we said in the previous lecture concerning Atlantis, 
that as we gaze upon the starry heavens and watch the 
planets as they roll, we cannot reasonably regard the 
occupants of this little orb as being the only intelligent 
creatures in the universe ; we cannot feel that those 
ancient and majestic globes that roll and shine in the 
distant heavens and that the various planets in this sys- 
tem are uninhabited, while this world is the only world 
which contains intelligent, sentient beings ; rather do 
we feel in the progress of the cycles — as wise men of 
the East were wont to teach in days of remote antiquity 
— the soul passes on and on from planet to planet, from 
system to system, and those bright, glorious, and aspiring 
minds who, while they dwelt on earth were always scan- 



LECTURE VIII. 133 

ning the heavens and wondering whether those bright, 
twinkling stars were inhabited, or whether man could 
ever visit them — we feel that those great inquiring 
intellects who gaze upon the stellar worlds and desire 
to know all about them, build their observatories and 
place their telescopes so that they may discover what- 
ever may be revealed to human sight and understanding 
concerning the myriad worlds in space — those mighty 
intellects are destined to travel among those starlit 
spaces, destined at some time to pass from world to 
world, to navigate the oceans of space and explore what 
would be termed by man on earth the farthest corners 
of the universe. Those great and glorious souls who 
long to know all they can about the stars are the very 
ones who are becoming prepared while in earthly life 
to journey through the universe, and when they have 
dropped the earthly mantle, clad in other and more 
glorious form, will assuredly pass to other and more 
glorious worlds than this. 

There are no instincts in the human mind which 
are beyond satisfaction, no desires eternally destined 
to remain unsatisfied; there are no demands of our 
spiritual or intellectual being for which supplies do not 
exist somewhere, and we have no hesitation in saying 
that a spiritual revelation has already been made to 
highly inspired seers and sages, both in the Orient 
and the Occident, and that there are those to-day in 
America, and Europe also, who are holding communion 
with intelligences who speak of what they know when 
they declare that the old Buddhistic doctrine of a plane- 
tary chain and of souls passing from world to world, 



134 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

assuming new and higher forms with every forward 
stage in their journey, is substantially true ; and these 
are not the victims of an overheated imagination, but 
are the recipients of spiritual truth wafted to their 
minds from higher spheres. 

If any one inquires, "What does anybody really 
know about the lost Atlantians, or about any pre- 
historic peoples, wonderful God-like men and women 
who were the models after which the Grecians pat- 
terned when they erected statues of fairer and lovelier 
human beings than we now see around us? Where are 
those great and mighty nations of antiquity whose very 
habitations have been washed away by floods, ruined 
by earthquakes and storms, and now lie but as debris 
at the bottom of the Atlantic and Pacific waters ? " we 
answer, Turn your eyes skyward ; gaze upon the myriad 
worlds that shine in the blue expanse of heaven, ask of 
those stars which the telescope but dimly reveals, con- 
cerning which no adequate information can be obtained 
by material science, at least with reference to their in- 
habitants, and if you have the quick ear of the spirit 
and hear the answers that will vibrate toward you 
through the illimitable spaces dividing the earth from 
those distant worlds, as swiftly as light and electricity 
pass down to you, you will receive tidings of those 
races of mankind who have graduated to higher schools 
and universities in the universe. Races of men, families 
of souls, colonies of spirits come to the earth to fulfill 
their appointed mission ; their destiny is slowly out- 
wrought here, and then the countries wherein they 
labored and which they perfected by their toil become 



LECTURE VIII. 135 

like old school-houses from which the scholars have fled. 
The school-houses may fall into decay, the edifice, no 
matter how fair, may lie in ruins, but the emancipated 
scholars have graduated and gone forth into a broader 
universe ; all of them are learners, some may now be 
professors in those great colleges which you call other 
and brighter worlds. 

Not only is this world a school, but all worlds are 
schools ; not only is this world inhabited, but all worlds 
are inhabited at some period in their career. All are 
born from one great parent source ; all are brought to 
perfection in obedience to one beautiful law ; all are 
intended as houses of discipline and education for im- 
mortal mind, and filled with probationers for a glorious 
immortality. Such is the mission of all the planets and 
stars which stud the glorious firmament. 

Therefore it is not ruin, devastation, or failure that 
overtakes a world or any portion of it when, having 
reached the climax of perfection, it afterward fades 
away, but as the book of Genesis tells us, when the 
heavens and the earth were completed and man ap- 
peared upon the earth, the sons of God shouted for joy. 
Why did those sons of God shout for joy when this 
world was sufficiently far advanced to sustain human 
beings ? Why did those angels and archangels of which 
theology teaches give praise to God when God had 
made a new earth, but, because they were evidently' 
former inhabitants of worlds that had passed out of 
existence, and from the very star-dust, from the cosmic 
fluid and the primal chaos, a new world had been born 
in the building of which they had been instrumental as 



136 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the servants and messengers of the Most High, rearing 
habitations and schools for other souls who must un- 
dergo experiences similar to those which had made them 
great. 

And so whenever a world is blotted out or quenched 
in flame, or whenever a portion of the earth fades out 
of sight (even its memory may lie for a long time for- 
gotten, buried among the ruins of departed ages), — 
when its forgotten history is again remembered, and 
knowledge of ancient days is revived, and men ex- 
claim, " Oh, what saddening spectacles of decay ! Oh, 
what pitiable wrecks ! Oh, how terrible it is that when 
things have been brought to such perfection they are 
surely doomed to die ! " — angelic choirs chant with 
exceeding gladness, " Ah, it is not so ; for we who were 
the inhabitants of those now deserted haunts have been 
called to a higher world ; and when the spirit, which 
kept alive the earth and advanced it on its way, re- 
ceded, it journeyed to higher spheres, and only through 
the withdrawal of the spirit from the outward form at 
the time of their death, the old tabernacles, no longer 
vitalized by mind, passed away, and their places know 
them no more." 

Let us look back upon those grand old people whom 
we call Atlantians, who inhabited many thousands 
of years ago that glorious land beyond the Pillars of 
Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, 
spoken of by Plato in his wonderful account of that 
ancient world; let us take such glimpses as we may 
catch both from inspiration and from history of their 
manners and customs, of their religion and general 



LECTURE VIII. 137 

condition, and we shall find that corroborative testi- 
mony collected from an immense variety of authentic 
sources will lead us to the conclusion that they were 
in their highest culmination, without doubt those very 
remarkable people who are called u sons of God" in 
ancient lore, and whom the poets have sighed over as 
the fair and happy beings who once were well-nigh 
immortal upon earth. 

There are two directly conflicting theories extant, 
(i.e. apparently conflicting) concerning man's origin, 
growth, and destiny, which cannot either of them be set 
aside as spurious or without foundation. The one the- 
ory is, that man began his career as an illiterate, naked 
savage, and slowly made his way to his present point in 
civilization. That theory, which is termed the evolu- 
tionary theory, and which is now held by nearly all 
scientific and philosophical minds in some form or 
other (subject to various modifications), seems to har- 
monize perfectly with all we can understand of God's 
goodness and of the infinite wisdom displayed in the 
scheme of the universe, Such a theory seems to har- 
monize perfectly with all our knowledge of the laws of 
growth in nature, that man should begin a human 
acorn, as. it were, and work his way out by dint of pro- 
gressive effort until he becomes a giant oak; that he 
should begin as the very tiniest seed, though containing 
every highest possibility of future development within' 
him, but only through ages of growth become as a 
flower in all his expanded beauty; that he should begin 
as an infant with the most rudimentary intelligence and 
scarcely any idea of Deity or the soul's immortality, 



138 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

and then slowly evolve through long periods of time, 
religion, government, science, art, and philosophy, until 
he becomes at length well-nigh a god in human form. 
This theory of evolution fills us with boundless hope ; it 
enables us to look forward to a future far more glorious 
than the past ; it teaches that paradise is before and not 
behind us, that we are working our way to an Eden 
that has not yet been found. It fills us with a bound- 
less confidence that our dreams are all to be realized 
in days to come, and that there is something infinitely 
better before us than ever lay behind us. To a great 
extent this theory, commending itself as it does to the 
very highest, noblest and most intelligent sentiments 
of our nature, is indisputable, it is supported by many 
irrefutable truths, and is beyond cavil when judged 
either from a moral or intellectual standpoint. 

But while we may glory in the evolutionary theory 
of man's development ; while we may give to it the 
palm and in a general sense sincerely believe in it, — 
at all events we believe it to be the nearest approxi- 
mation to truth which modern science has preached to 
the world, — we are compelled to admit that history 
and the condition of the globe itself everywhere points 
to a forfeited Eden, to a lost paradise. We need not 
turn to the Bible to read the story of Adam and Eve 
expelled from a garden of Eden in Asia six thousand 
years ago ; we need not read of the flaming sword held 
by the cherubim to deter man from partaking of the fruit 
of the Tree of Life ; we need not delve through wonderful 
stories in the Old Testament and read of a Deluge that 
swept away the inhabitants of the earth with the ex- 



lecture vin. 139 

ception of eight persons, about four thousand years ago, 
or of the fire and brimstone that came down from 
heaven and destroyed the wicked cities of the plain ; 
we need not read in history of the fall of Rome, the 
fall of Israel, the desolation of Nineveh and Babylon, 
or the sweeping away of Tyre and Sidon ; for no trav- 
eler who journeys through the land of the Nile, or 
through any of the territories watered by the Euphra- 
tes or the Ganges, and contrasts the present condition 
of Egypt, or of India under British misrule, or the 
present condition of the Chinese Empire given over 
to degradation and idolatry, with the splendid teach- 
ings of an age that brought to light a Buddha and 
Confucius, can fail to perceive that the earth has in 
many of its parts enjoyed in days gone by a glori- 
ous history which is now scarcely remembered even 
in name. 

All the eloquent ruins of Egypt, those wondrous 
pyramids, that mysterious Sphinx, and all those weird 
and mystic obelisks standing in impressive grandeur in 
the Delta of the Nile, point to a time when there was a 
race of men in Egypt who could build structures which 
to-day excite the attention of the most scientific minds, 
and are well-nigh beyond decipherment. We find in 
Central America, in Peru, though to-day the native 
populations are degraded, evidences of a glorious en- 
lightenment in the far past, which assures us that all 
these districts have once been centers of a civilization 
and art now almost entirely forgotten. 

No traveler in Rome, in Athens, in Palestine, can 
possibly pass through the desolated walks where once 



140 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the noblest and mightiest men of earth were wont to 
travel, without sighing over the world's loss in their 
destruction, and exclaiming, " Oh, if to-day things were 
only what once they were ! " The traveler pours forth 
a wail of anguish when he gazes upon the desolated 
splendors of the earth, and yet all the while modern 
science tells him that progress is the watchword of the 
earth and humanity, that everything is moving forward 
to a more glorious goal then was ever reached in bygone 
ages. 

Here are two apparently irreconcilable stories told 
by the earth itself. The earth says, " I am advancing," 
and the same earth in many, many places says, " Oh, 
how sadly have I retrograded ! " 

The doctrine of evolution is positively confirmed by 
the testimony of the rocks, and by a study of ethnology. 
But at the same time the story of a lost paradise as 
sung by every poet and prophet, is eloquently told by 
the very stones beneath our feet. By reason of the 
ships which to-day go forth across the Atlantic, and 
make deep-sea soundings in the very bed of the ocean, 
thinkers are led to conclude that there is no longer any 
doubt that the peaks of the Azores are the mountain 
tops of Atlantis, and that for thousands of miles under 
that wonderful Atlantic Ocean, yea, and under the 
Pacific also, we may find the remains of continents 
and islands, which were once more glorious than any of 
to-day. 

We can, however, affirm this : while there is an or- 
der of circular motion in the development of all things, 
while night follows day, rest follows work, winter fol- 



LECTURE VIII. 141 

lows summer; the earth is progressing all the while, 
and taking it all in all, everything considered, the world 
was never as well off as it is now. 

We are now in the spring-time of a new cycle ; we 
are now in the early morning hours of a new day; 
they who stand on free fair American soil, where their 
unknown ancestors trod in ages buried in the night of 
prehistoric antiquity, are carving out a destiny for fair 
Columbia, infinitely surpassing that of the palmiest 
days of old. When the fruits are ripened next season, 
when the waving corn is next gathered in, when next 
the angels are commissioned to thrust in their sharp 
sickle because the harvest of the earth is ripe, the vin- 
tage and gathered crops of grain will be more luxurious, 
if not more delicious, than ever of old. Civilization 
covering a far wider territory than it ever covered 
before, the world will fulfill the prediction of Jesus, 
" Greater works than these shall ye do." Not necessarily 
greater in kind, but greater in quantity ; not greater in 
marvelousness, but more widely extended. The civili- 
zation of olden times was localized, here and there was 
an oasis in what might otherwise be called the desert 
of the world; and though such oases grew larger and 
larger until civilization spread over wide tracts of 
country, there never was a culmination in days gone by 
so glorious as the culmination we may now anticipate. 

The forward march of the world is accomplished not 
only through the day-hours, but also through the night 
that follows day ; so the new day following a departed 
night is a brighter day than the preceding one ; winter 
follows harvest, then another spring-time and summer 



142 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

result in a harvest more plenteous than the one of the 
year before. And so there is indeed a forward inarch of 
the world, a response from all beings to the Master's 
great cry, " Excelsior," a perpetual response to the invi- 
tation, " Come up higher," and this in perfect accord- 
ance with what at first sight appears like a reversal of 
the order and a contradiction of the doctrine of human- 
ity's progression. 

We maintain, therefore, when we take anything like 
an intelligent survey of the world's history and cast 
the horoscope of coming generations with anything like 
accuracy, that we must look on this side of the picture 
and on that ; on the side of seeming retrogression and 
on that of real progress. When we do so we shall learn 
that a new and more glorious life than has ever yet 
been known to earth is not merely a poet's rhapsody or 
a sentence placed by an enthusiastic painter at the 
foot of a great work of art, but a sure and solid reality 
capable of application in every national and individual 
case. 

In " Fragments of Forgotten History," a work pub- 
lished under the auspices of the Theosophical Society 
in London, by two Cheelahs, the statement is made that 
there were days long gone by in the far East when 
men possessed seven senses instead of five, and that be- 
yond the senses of the body these men enjoyed clear 
perceptions of the spirit which gradually were lost as 
men became more and more materialistic, thinking 
more and more of mammon and less and less of spirit. 
This same work which is the result of mystical re- 
searches into the spiritual as well as the physical his- 



LECTURE VIII. 143 

tory of mankind, declares that the various powers and 
senses of human nature were not developed all at once, 
but gradually one by one. Now as we hear that there 
has been a stone age, a bronze age, an iron age, etc., 
and different ages of the world have been characterized 
by special developments in all departments of being, 
we can readily understand there may have been a 
mystic period long ago, an age of intuition, an age of 
wonderful spiritual enlightenment, when the morality 
of the world, at all events in certain sections, was 
higher than it is now. We may assure ourselves there 
were times, now long gone by, when people realized 
their nearness to the spiritual universe as they do not 
ordinarily realize it now ; that there were times when 
the gods really walked among men ; but who were the 
gods ? Those mentioned in the New Testament were 
simply human beings upon whom the spirit of God 
(the Eternal) came ; gods are said to have ruled in 
Egypt before the Pharaohs ; Egyptian gods and god- 
desses were highly inspired men and women whose 
spiritual gifts enabled them to realize not only scientific, 
but also spiritual truth in wonderful degree. The ac- 
counts in Grecian and Roman poetry and philosophy of 
how gods and goddesses in the happy days long passed, 
walked among men ; the stories which are told of 
mortals meeting with the gods upon the Heights of 
Parnassus and Olympus, and of mortals hearing the 
lyre of Orpheus play when touched by invisible hands, 
clearly prove that men were once nearer to the spiritual 
world than they now are. These tales are records of a 
holier and happier age, of a period when the earth was 



144 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

young in this sense : that the beauty of the unsophisti- 
cated spirit of poesy and philosophy had not been tam- 
pered with and sullied as much as now. However, that 
may have been a period, comparatively speaking, of the 
world's infancy, for we know that children to-day are 
often far more alive to spiritual visions than the oldest 
gray-headed sires. We know there is a profounder 
wisdom than appears at first sight in the action of Jesus 
taking a little child, setting him in the midst of the wise 
men of that day, and saying to the sages : " Except ye 
be converted and become as little children ye shall not 
enter into the kingdom of -heaven." We know that 
childlikeness does not only mean innocence and virtue, 
but frequently spiritual illumination; it means that 
intuitive wisdom which fades away when reason dog- 
matically asserts itself and intellect claims to be the 
only ruler, saying : " What I cannot comprehend is not 
worth knowing." We all know that in a spiritual 
sense a little child is often a sage, while many a man 
of science is but an ignoramus spiritually. 

We do not undervalue the achievements of material 
science, but we do say an age of intuition in the far 
past gave to man a knowledge of spiritual law coupled 
with a power to produce aesthetic art, as the faculty of 
instinct enables animals (lower creatures than men) to 
act unerringly while man stumbles and falls. Do not 
animals — creatures far beneath you in intelligence and 
dignity — astonish and abase you by knowing more 
than you know, or apparently so, because they act with 
foresight that you do not possess ? And is it not true 
that man falls when he endeavors to walk alone, but 



LECTURE VIII. 145 

when guided by a power beyond himself he always 
walks uprightly? 

We are not prepared to say that the Atlantians or 
that any ancient wonder-workers of either the Orient oi* 
the Occident were as rationalistic as modern scientists. 
We are not prepared to say that intellectually consid- 
ered they had come to that perfection in the develop- 
ment of science, literature, and art which men of to-day 
are rapidly achieving; we rather look upon them as 
what may be termed mediumistic people, guided very 
greatly by a spiritual instinct, by a subtle intuition, and 
by a peculiar receptivity to the operation of the spirit- 
ual nature. Thus we find associated with all their 
achievements, and with all their art, names and forms of 
those whom they called gods and goddesses, and these 
gods and goddesses, though originally men and women, 
were those in whom spiritual gifts were unfolded, to 
a very remarkable degree, and who held constant and 
open communion with spiritual states of life. 

Our own knowledge is derived from sources which 
we cannot divulge further than to say that it emanates 
from those who positively know of the ancient world. 
Atlantis in particular was the primal source of all the 
splendid literature which startles the world with its 
profundity and glowing imagery, that has been wor- 
shiped as sacred but yet misunderstood, as its inner 
meaning has not yet been found by the masses ; sacred 
lore has been handed down to modern peoples and 
committed to the custody of the nations of to-day from 
the very ancient prehistoric races of Asia, Africa, and 
America at large. 



146 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

We have no doubt but that the Israelites, borrow- 
ing their wonderful knowledge from the Egyptians, 
acknowledging Moses as their leader, Moses having 
been educated at the court of Pharaoh, acknowledged 
as the grandson of the reigning monarch, when leav- 
ing Egypt at the time of the exodus, borrowing from 
the Egyptians their ornaments, had gathered from the 
Egyptians that wonderful knowledge which they em- 
bodied in their scriptures, which agree esoterically 
with the marvelous tales of Atlantis told to Solon, the 
Athenian law-giver, by the priests of Sais, and we are 
sure the Alexandrian library prior to its destruction by 
the Mohammedans contained in priceless manuscripts 
knowledge of the ancient world transmitted to parch- 
ment. But the knowledge which men suppose to have 
been destroyed by the Mussulmans when they caused 
the Alexandrian library to be burned — because, said 
they, there is nothing worth preserving but the Koran ; 
and if the statements in these books are not in harmony 
with the Koran, they are false ; and if they are in har- 
mony, we do not need them because the Koran contains 
all truth and knowledge — this knowledge was never 
swept from the face of the earth, for in sacred secret 
orders (theosophical lodges we may call them, for they 
are lodges for the study of divine wisdom, and that is 
all the word theosophy signifies) this knowledge has 
always been preserved, and there are those now all 
over the world who act as ordinary citizens, who wear 
the ordinary costume of the period, whose outward 
manners would betoken no singularity, who belong 
to these ancient lodges and hold communion with 



LECTURE VIII. 147 

those who have handed down to them a direct line 
of history of those ancient buried peoples. Now 
concerning Mahatmas and Himalayan brothers : while 
a great many stories have been told of them filled with 
sensational exaggerations ; while a great deal of mys- 
tery has been thrown over Theosophy by those who en- 
deavor to advertise themselves rather than divine wis- 
dom, we assure you that we know as a positive fact 
that ancient history is now in the possession of secret 
orders which is yet to be disclosed to the world, printed 
in plain English and sold by booksellers, for there are 
many important palimpsests about to be deciphered 
by learned hieroglyphists, archaeologists, and other stu- 
dents of antiquity, and you will soon find our words 
concerning the condition of the Atlantians are in ac- 
cordance with veritable facts recorded on the sacred 
tablets of the world's ancient monuments and parch- 
ments, which are slowly being discovered by those who 
in various ways are interrogating the bed of the ocean, 
and the wonderful monuments of antiquity all over the 
earth, and who will reveal all the truth they can de- 
cipher to the world at large. 

The religion of Atlantis, which has been aptly called 
solar worship, was not a simple recognition of the solar 
orb as a center of light, heat, and electricity, but as 
Swedenborg said in a later day, reviving the science of 
correspondences which he declares was known in the 
time of Job and lost for four thousand years, until he 
refound it in 1757, divine wisdom is divine light, divine 
love is divine heat. Therefore, as the sun is now known 
to be the center of light, heat, and electricity from which 



148 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the world and all that grows upon it derives its sus- 
tenance, and this fact that all things are dependent upon 
the sun, is a recent scientific discovery, so far as the 
present age is concerned — the very fact that all 
ancient people, Egyptians, Hindus, Peruvians, Central 
Americans and others worshiped the sun, is an evidence 
that they were acquainted with the scientific facts 
which are now being newly revealed or newly discov- 
ered to the world. 

In Solar mythology, when spiritually deciphered, the 
sun represents the soul, the light, heat, and electricity 
radiating from it, love, wisdom, and truth which illume 
the entire understanding and body of man, and give 
him all his intellect and vitality, man being the micro- 
cosm, God the macrocosm. 

Alcyone, the centre of the Pleiades, the great and 
glorious central sun around w r hich the sun which lights 
this system in company w T ith many others accomplishes 
its periodical journey in the grand year of the Pleiades, 
was the best representative of the Almighty that man 
could find, and instead of dwarfing and limiting God to 
a puny earthly form, instead of declaring that God was 
to be likened to a dog, a cat, or a bird, — as many idola- 
ters have likened God, — knowing that great central 
sun (without which the universe could not exist) was 
the center of all light, life, heat, and electricity, they 
acknowledged it as a symbol of the divine spiritual 
power which kindled all worlds everywhere ; and thus 
Solar worship, the grand old religion of the Atlantians, 
the religion of Egypt at the time when the Great Pyra- 
mid of Gizeh was built, and the religion of all the most 



LECTUKE VIII. 149 

enlightened ancients, instead of being an idolatry which 
worships matter and ignores spirit altogether, as some 
suppose, was a correspondential religion acknowledging 
the glorious luminary which lights all space, as being 
the best and most perfect symbol of the divine all-illumi- 
nating Being. 

The Atlantians, acknowledging the central sun as 
the source of all light, declared that as the sun gave 
light, heat, gladness, and vitality to countless worlds, 
as the sun did not exist for itself, did not live in 
solitary grandeur, shining in splendor for its own 
glory, but lighted all space and brought teeming worlds 
into existence with all their myriad populations, such 
was God's light in the great universe as a whole ; and 
in every individual life God must be understood as 
always imparting his beams of glory to all who will to be 
reached by His power. Acting upon this glorious princi- 
ple, they declared that love to the neighbor and works 
of philanthropy were the only possible means of show- 
ing forth the glory of God ; and from that great and 
glorious ancient world came the very spirit of the com- 
mandments, " Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, 
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

The ancient religion of Atlantis has been well recon- 
structed and re-presented to the world in Bulwer-Lyt- 
ton's magnificent description of the Vril-Ya ; and when 
that great novelist wrote his " Coming Race," he did 
not depend upon romance or imagination, but being 
himself indoctrinated into the innermost mysteries of 
certain secret orders, he wrote the history of Atlantis, 
and prophesied that in coming days the world would 



150 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

achieve even more glorious triumphs over matter and 
beget even diviner forms of government than were ever 
known before. 

Atlantis, then, is that wondrous world said to be un- 
der the earth (for it is now under the water),where those 
tall and venerable men and women rose in glory with 
their Vrilsticks in their hands to dominate the earth 
and gather force from everything in nature, driving 
away all errors and annoyance by the mere touch of 
their magic wands. From many ancient sources we 
may learn much of the condition of the ancient world. 
We are convinced that Atlantis will be reconstructed, 
nay, surpassed in future days in the condition of some 
fair, bright land in which all nations will unite, in 
which all peoples will amalgamate, in which all religions 
and languages will blend in perfect harmony ; for out 
of all the chaos of the present, a pure religion, a perfect 
language, and a just government founded upon princi- 
ples of intelligence, equity, and freedom, will appear, 
like a phoenix from the ashes, soaring triumphantly to 
future glory. 

What was the condition of the Atlantians when at 
the zenith of their greatness? Study if you will the 
most perfect models of Grecian art, gaze upon the 
magnificent statues of these highly civilized peoples, 
when the nations bordering upon Hellenic seas were at 
the very summit of civilization. Behold the majesty of 
Hercules, the mighty in strength ; the wondrous love- 
liness of Apollo Belvedere ; the matchless intelligence 
of Minerva ; the charming grace of Venus. Compare 
those wonderful models of humanity with the almost 



LECTURE VIII. 151 

pigmy creatures who strut upon the earth to-day, and 
then you will have caught something of a photograph 
of those marvelous people of old who attained to this 
surpassing loveliness by a life of intelligence far, far 
surpassing that which is dictated by the highest culture 
of to-day, wliich is superficial because intellectual only 
and not spiritual, even when avowedly religious. 

In those ancient days when the gods and goddesses, 
as they are termed, walked the earth, the most per- 
fect symmetry extended through the moral, intellectual, 
and physical departments of human nature. The most 
spiritually minded were the most intellectual, and the 
most intellectual were the strongest and healthiest in 
body. Instead of emaciated skeletons priding them- 
selves upon their sanctity because they look more fit 
for the grave than for the discharge of ordinary life 
duties ; instead of pale and lifeless men and women 
cloistered beneath the earth, shut away from the invig- 
orating influence of sunshine, air and beauty, those 
noble Atlantians, who were the builders of the pyra- 
mids and other wonderful structures now in ruins in 
Central America, were the people who were made men- 
tion of as "the children of God" in the olden times, 
separated from the ordinary children of men, because 
characterized by exceeding grace of mind and form. 

Their government was a pure republic, a perfect de- 
mocracy, and yet at the same time a theocracy. It was 
of God, and yet it was " a government of the people, for 
the people, and by the people." It was the self-govern- 
ment of an enlightened nation who followed their moral 
instincts and were guided by intelligence and wise 



152 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

enough to allow every one to fall into his own place 
and to elect as rulers those who were seen to be most 
fitted for the work. Bulwer-Lytton, very true to Atlan- 
tian history, says that the Vril-Ya, when they selected 
their rulers, singled out for their representatives men 
of wonderful unfoldment and special qualifications and 
urged them to take office. He states further that there 
was no clamoring for position, no electioneering strife, 
no bribery or corruption through people trying to get 
into Congress or Parliament in order that they may 
appear a little better than their neighbors ; he reviews 
the past and forecasts the future, in his description of a 
coming race, and tells you what was in the highest civil- 
ization of olden times, and what will be again on a 
more extended scale in the civilization of the future. 

Atlantis of old passed through all the stages of trial 
and development through which America and France 
are now passing. Republican and democratic experi- 
ments were tried, monarchies came and went, empires 
rose and fell, and then at last a system of intelligent 
co-operation arose, embodying all the excellence of the 
communistic idea with all that is truly good in a paren- 
tal form of government, united in an absolutely demo- 
cratic form of administration. 

The land was abundantly fruitful, highly cultivated, 
favored with a charming climate from end to end, and 
occupied by an intelligent, industrious people who had 
carried their labor-saving appliances to such a point 
that all their manual work was performed automati- 
cally, the people devoting themselves to intellectual and 
artistic studies of every kind. They soared in the air, 



LECTURE VIII. 153 

travelling with wings as mechanical appendages ; they 
had a perfect system of aerial navigation, and in their 
air-boats sailed in the calm atmosphere surrounding that 
beautiful land, which was itself a terrestrial paradise, as 
easily as vessels cross water to-day in calmest weather. 

All this points to the glorious coming days when the 
new Atlantis shall be established all over the civilized 
globe. Society will yet show itself capable of taking the 
most romantic theory of the most enthusiatic prophet 
and reducing it to science, showing man's absolute 
power at length over the elements, but only after he 
has first mastered his own lower nature. 

Men and women of Atlantis were in blessed equality ; 
no striving on the part of one for supremacy over the 
other, they acknowledged their equal rights and offices, 
and came together in the highest marriage relation as 
mothers and fathers of children whom they loved, not 
one of whom they unwillingly bore. In those bright 
days of old the highest civilization expressed itself in such 
perfect education, such pure religion, such high art and 
equitable government, that to-day with all our boasted 
pride and civilization we look back that we may pattern 
after the ancients. You admire the splendid temples 
of old so much that when you build a new cathedral or 
coliseum you endeavor to imitate ancient architecture 
instead of seeking to improve modern imperfections. 
Every one admires the ancient models, and with all our 
u superior culture " we have to acknowledge that the 
finest poetry and the most sacred writings belong to a 
bygone age. 

Be it so ! These are the rich ripe fruits of a cycle 



154 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

long since culminated, and as we look back and study 
the history of the old world, let us go forward into the 
new age, not only to equal, but to surpass, the attain- 
ments and achievements which were the loftiest devel- 
opments of yore. 

The new Atlantis, Atlantis reconstructed, resurrected 
as a phoenix from the pile of ashes, will give to humanity 
in the days to come even more perfect religion, manners, 
government, and art than these prehistoric people ever 
knew : for Whittier's words ever prove correct, — 

" The new transcends the old 
In signs and wonders manifold." 



Aspiration. 



Eternal Fountain of all goodness, our Father 
and our Mother, who art in all the heavens and in 
all the earths ; Thou who art in all the seas, the winds 
and hurricanes, the earthquakes and the storms ; Thou 
who art in everything which men call beautiful, and in 
all things which men call adverse, when they under- 
stand not Thy purpose, when they realize not the beauty 
of Thy plan ; Thou who art all in all, the Eternal One 
blessed forever and ever, we lift our hearts and minds 
and voices unto Thee, the infinite spirit, with glad ac- 
claim, praising Thee that we live in a beautiful universe 
governed by an all-wise and all-loving law. 

If in the law of nature there are mysteries we cannot 
explain ; if there are wonders we cannot decipher, and 



LECTURE VIII. 155 

marvelous doings beyond our ken ; may we in humble 
trust and fervent love acknowledge Thee now and at all 
times as the guiding and inspiring power of all, work- 
ing out a glorious destiny for all Thy children, and ever 
preparing for the sons and daughters of men a larger 
heritage and a more glorious possession than they ever 
forfeited in the destruction which has fallen upon the 
wondrous places of olden time. 

If we turn our eyes to the earth and ocean beneath 
our feet, and observe the footprints of the storm and 
tempest — where'er we turn our eyes; if nations once 
most powerful and victorious lie low in ruin, and their 
place is now the habitation of the bittern and the owl ; 
if we see no longer the gay and festive crowds march- 
ing through imperial Rome, or following the philoso- 
phers of Greece to halls of learning; if over all the 
Orient the temples are desolate and the fires extin- 
guished upon their altars, — may we know that Thou 
dost ever kindle anew the fires of aspiration in the 
human mind, and sendest fresh fire from heaven to give 
evidence to all humble and honest seekers after Thee, 
that Thou dost answer all thy suppliants by the fire of 
truth which cometh down from spheres supernal, purg- 
ing the dross and separating precious metal from base 
alloy. 

May we know that in the glorious Eden-time yet to 
come, in the paradise yet to be found on earth, men 
will realize more than the poet's dream, more than the 
prophet's expectation ; and that the lion and the lamb, 
the little child and the serpent, as Thy servants of old 
foretold, will, in peace and harmony, dwell together, 



156 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

having lost all subtlety, all ravenous desire, and what- 
soever would militate against a republic of perfect peace 
and happiness. 

May we know, O Thou eternal fountain of all good- 
ness, that though Thou art in the storm and in the deep 
waters, Thy way is ever love conjoined with wisdom. If 
friends more loved than life have been called away as 
with a flood, to realms beyond the tomb, then through 
the rifted clouds, from out the opening heavens may we 
behold them with the eye of the spirit and listen to 
their glad voices with the ear of the spirit, hearing them 
singing together and seeing them rejoice as they walk 
in white, proclaiming there is no death, but only trans- 
lation ; may we see them risen and ascended, beckoning 
us on to the bright worlds where now they dwell. May 
we feel the guidance of heaven's beckoning hand : may 
we listen and obey the entreaties of all loving voices 
that call us to a higher and nobler life ; and though 
it be upon the wreck of all that sense holds dear, 
may we gladly turn to the Spirit of Truth as our only 
guide and counselor, and fixing our minds steadfastly 
upon those incorruptible treasures of the spirit which 
neither time nor death can ever touch, find in our own 
souls a new paradise, a kingdom of life and love wherein 
Thou dost dwell forever, revealed to the hearts of Thy 
children. Amen, 



LECTURE IX. 

ORIENTAL THEOSOPHY. — BRAHMANISM AND 
BUDDHISM. 

It is indeed impossible to deal exhaustively with 
these two most stupendous religious systems of olden 
time, and it would be futile to enter upon labored argu- 
ments to establish the priority of one or the other. They 
are both unmistakably of very great age, dating back 
into what is commonly called prehistoric antiquity. Our 
endeavor will be to compare the two, not to settle any 
mooted question regarding age or doctrinal superiority. 

The chief difference between these two systems is, 
that Brahmanism deals principally with abstract meta- 
physics, Buddhism with practical philanthropy. The 
Brahmanical system of thought is indigenous to the 
East, and profoundly metaphysical. When Mrs. Eddy 
makes the statement, " All is mind; there is no matter," 
she uses a phrase in harmony with all spiritual under- 
standing of the universe ; but such a conception cer- 
tainly did not originate with her, nor even with the 
Greek philosophers of more than two thousand years 
ago ; it is an echo from perhaps the oldest system of 
thought extant on earth — ancient Brahmanism — which 
recognizes Spirit as the incorporeal Brahm, the only 
Reality, the all in all of Being. Matter {Maya) is 



158 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

nothing but illusion, though a reflection of the All 
(Spirit). The material world has no existence save as 
a reflection of the spiritual, which is the only real 
world, as Spirit is the only reality. This doctrine of 
the sole reality of spirit and the utterly illusive char- 
acter of matter can be traced back through thousands 
of years to the Vedas, which embody the profoundest 
system of thought known to the East. But this system 
of abstract and unapplied metaphysics often addresses 
itself to the intellect alone, not to the affections ; conse- 
quently it frequently fosters personal spiritual pride and 
self-righteousness, out of which has grown many a sys- 
tem of caste, giving undue authority to a ceremonial 
and priesthood. Any attempt to convert the world to 
absolute Brahmanism to-day would be futile. People 
who love to revel exclusively in abstract ideas are not 
as a rule benevolent. 

Buddhism is entirely different from Brahmanism ; as 
a religion it is ethical rather than creedal, and delights 
entirely in benevolent action. Brahmanism frequently 
looks to the salvation of one's own soul ; Buddhism asks 
the higher question, " What can I do to save others ? " 
The most frequent question of the individual in the 
world of to-day is, " What can I do to advance my own 
prospects ? how raise myself to some high condition in 
this world or another?" Now all selfish consideration 
represses what is noblest and best in human nature. 
Gautama (Buddha) renounced everything, became a 
mendicant friar, and gave to the world a religion so 
nearly resembling that of Jesus, that we cannot contrast 
the two, there being no essential variance between them ; 



LECTURE IX. 159 

we can only compare, and seek to harmonize popular ideas 
concerning them. Buddha did not originate his teach- 
ings ; he found them in the sacred Vedas, Puranas, 
and Upanishads. Buddha was a great Brahmanical re- 
former, as Jesus was a reformer among the Jews. 
Jesus never protested against the law or the prophets, 
only against the spurious aristocratic element that had 
crept into Judaism and exalted the teachings of the 
Talmud above the Thorah or Mosaic law. Gautama 
taught, five and a half centuries earlier than Jesus, the 
same truth, that all religion must be made practical. 
Buddha disregarded, as he grew in spirit, all the auster- 
ities of the Brahman creed, and devoted himself so 
entirely to a life of lovingkindness, that he exalted 
moral perfection far above intellectual accuracy ; he 
reduced the purely metaphysical ideas of his country- 
men to practice, and founded a system purely ethical ; 
a pure religion carrying into effect the grandest teach- 
ings to be found in all the world. Buddha had attained 
in his earliest youth (at eight years of age) to the 
understanding of all philosophy and science, and all 
through his life he felt in his heart the religion of the 
Spirit ; but not until he reduced it to daily, hourly prac- 
tice did he attain to the state of perfect blessedness 
{Nirvana). While meditating under the sacred tree 
he saw all his past embodiments, reviewed every link in 
the chain of his existence as it had been forged by the 
effort of his own spirit, and learned in this moment of 
divine revelation that everything which had prepared 
him for Nirvana was the good he had done, not the 
intellectual eminence he had attained. A merely intel- 



160 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

lectual comprehension of Theosophy is not a road to 
salvation. Salvation springs from the practical exem- 
plification of truth in our relation to our brethren. Our 
progress along the road cannot be judged by intellec- 
tual accomplishment, but only by our spiritual growth. 
We cannot estimate real progress by the amount of 
knowledge stored up in the mind, for we do not always 
find saints in professors' chairs, or sinners clothed in 
rags. Spiritual good is always our essential good, the 
good of our affections, not the truth of our intellects ; 
though in a perfect condition of dual unfoldment, it is 
needless to declare, we shall be both intellectually and 
spiritually developed. 

Brahmanism, as we understand it, was originally a 
pure, spiritual religion, proclaiming the essential oneness 
of all life, and regarding matter as an illusion of finite 
sense. But in the lapse of centuries the lofty ideal of 
primitive Hindu sages was obscured by priestly arro- 
gance, till, as in the case of Israel, prophets became fewer 
and fewer, while priests and sacrificial ordinances multi- 
plied on every hand. There is but one Spirit; what- 
ever appears to exist separately from that Spirit is but 
illusion; this was the protest of ancient Brahmanical 
Theosophy against all materialistic or sensuous concep- 
tions of the Universe. Para-Brahm, the Infinite Un- 
known, inaccessible to the intellect, was the sum and 
substance of the ancient teaching. Modern philoso- 
phers in the West talk of the Unknowable, — a foolish 
word, for none can measure prospective knowledge. 
Theosophy contents itself with speaking of the Great 
Unknown ; and this eternal mystery, though beyond all 



LECTURE IX. 161 

our present power to solve, may be so far understood 
by us in the future as to appear quite well known by 
comparison with our present ignorance. 

As the mortal senses can never discern spirit, it is 
quite useless to argue with confirmed sensualists con- 
cerning Deity, as they are quite destitute of the first 
requisite for considering the question fairly ; and to 
some extent it is also futile to discuss the divine prob- 
lem with intellectualists who scoff at intuition, and 
declare reason to be all. Such people may be quite 
honest, and live clean lives, but they are in the state of 
the "dog," as the term is used correspondentially in 
the Scriptures ; the former class are corresponded to by 
" swine." To attain to knowledge of the Supreme 
Being it is necessary to acknowledge and liberate the 
divine element in man, the " spiritual man" who can 
and does discern the things of the Spirit, but takes no 
cognizance of outward forms of sense. As no one can 
really serve two masters, it is vain to expect any great 
contribution to spiritual knowledge from those who are 
immured in sense and worldly pursuits, and it is equally 
unlikely that the world will receive very much assist- 
ance in mere money-making from those Cheelahs and 
Adepts who devote themselves exclusively to spiritual 
considerations. 

There is a prevalent belief in the West to-day that 
the Oriental religions counsel at all times a life of the 
most rigid and painful asceticism ; that they would urge 
their followers to completely renounce every earthly 
obligation as well as pleasure, in attaining to adepthood. 
This view is erroneous ; though it is true that there is 



162 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

a strong ascetic element in Hinduism as there is in 
Roman Catholicism ; and the two systems, when care- 
fully analyzed, will be found to teach about the same 
thing concerning prayer, penance, mortification, etc. 
In the Roman Catholic Church there are two distinct 
sets of commandments : First. Those binding on every- 
body. These include the Decalogue and certain rules 
of the Church concerning confession, communion, fast- 
ing, alms, attendance at Mass, etc. Second. Those 
which pertain only to members of religious orders, and 
these orders are by no means equally strict. The 
Carmelites and Poor Clares differ in their discipline 
from the Benedictines, Dominicans, and others whose 
churches are plentiful all over the world. In the Cath- 
olic Church, just as in ancient Brahmanism, there are 
again two distinct views as to the most effectual means 
of attaining the highest blessedness. In the " Lives 
of the Saints," by Alban Butler, and that much more 
Anglican view of the subject taken in a similar work 
by Baring-Gould, the writers distinctly prove that some 
eminent mystics in the Church, many of whom wrought 
miracles (works which excited wonder because the 
multitude could not duplicate them), adopted the idea 
that pure contemplation of perfect holiness excited in 
the devotee the intensest love of righteousness and 
conduces to the attainment even here on earth of in- 
effable beatification ; while others insisted that scourg- 
ings of the flesh, fearful flagellations, and other horrid 
exercises of self-imposed torture, were necessary to free 
the soul from carnal bondage. Is it not probable that 
the founders of different orders judged the world by 



LECTURE IX. 163 

themselves, and, being persons of widely different tem- 
perament, they each commended only that discipline 
which seemed appropriate to their own needs? For 
this reason the Popes have sanctioned many orders, and 
the " infallible " Church confesses to freedom in disci- 
pline, but rigid uniformity in doctrine. Many Catholic 
priests of unquestioned orthodoxy disapprove of the 
persecution of " heretics" to the death, and consider 
the fiery martyrdoms of the sixteenth century the result 
of grievous error in ecclesiastical discipline ; but these 
same priests would render themselves liable to imme- 
diate suspension and ultimate excommunication, were 
they to show any toleration for the doctrines taught by 
those same "heresiarchs" and their condemned followers. 
With this explanatory digression we will now take up 
the two opposing elements in Hinduism, one of which 
is sublime and the other hideous, leaving the reader to 
use his own judgment in accepting or condemning 
whatever comes to him in an Oriental guise, alleging 
itself to be " Eastern wisdom." 

Pure, undiluted Brahmanism (an absolutely meta- 
physical system) is no doubt the most ancient religion 
of the East ; but Buddhism, which seeks to embody the 
divine idea in a perfect man, may be almost as ancient. 
The two systems are probably almost contemporaneous. 
To-day they exist side by side in Asia as do Judaism 
and Christianity in Europe and America. Brahmanism 
deals with God out of Buddha; Buddhism sees God 
only through Buddha, as Christianity sees God only 
through Christ, which view of Deity Judaism stoutly 
rejects, as the Jewish mind fears it is only a species of 



164 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

idolatry or polytheism ; but polytheism is not necessarily 
idolatrous, nor is it really opposed to Monotheism 
when inferior divinities are never permitted to usurp 
the throne of the Infinite in the mind of the worshiper. 
The Jewish Kabalists, though they never swerved in 
their allegiance to the fundamental proposition of Juda- 
ism, * God is one," admitted nine orders of Sephiroth 
as emanations from the Supreme, each one of which, 
according to the Kabala, constitutes a distinct hierarchy 
in the invisible world. Moses, though never deified in 
Israel, is regarded by all orthodox Israelites as the 
greatest man who ever lived, — a man to whom God 
spoke as He has spoken to no other; but the distinctly 
mystic element in Judaism has always clustered around 
the person of Melchisedec, King of Salem (abode of 
peace). He, as priest of the Most High, was a greater 
man than Abraham ; for, when Abraham met him he 
did obeisance before him, and offered him loaves and 
wine in token of his superior rank as a priest of the 
unchanging order of the Spirit. The Hebrew name for 
Deity, Jahveh, or Jehovah, means the self-existent 
being. Adonai (the term used in the Hebrew ritual) 
only signifies Lord, which is a title of doubtful mean- 
ing, and suggests to the mind familiar with Greek litera- 
ture, Adonis, the god of beauty, whom the Greeks never 
considered the equal of Zeus, who, in his turn, was 
subordinate to the nameless, ineffable Power which, 
when Stoicism was in the ascendant, was called Fate, 
to which gods as well as men were always subject. 

It is so impossible for the finite mind to content itself 
with the infinite and absolute in idea, that every relig- 



LECTURE IX. 165 

ious system on earth has added Spiritualism to Mono- 
theism. These two systems are not antagonistic in the 
minds of those who can grasp both; for the latter is 
but a manifestation of the former which, while unmani- 
fest, is incomprehensible. Who was the personal Lord 
who spake to Moses from the bush at Horeb, and from 
the summit of Sinai, who appeared to Elijah in the wil- 
derness, and constantly manifested himself as an angel to 
the patriarchs ? Surely, not the Infinite Eternal, whom 
no man has seen at any time, but a messenger from 
the invisible world, near enough to the plane of man's 
comprehension to be intelligible as a personality, and 
yet far enough removed from ordinary limitations to 
be a master in wisdom to those with whom he conversed. 
We know the purely subjective type of mind will repu- 
diate this explanation, and contend that objective spir- 
itual phenomena never occur, but people think they 
take place when they are hallucinated. While those 
who argue thus are often very spiritually minded people 
who are quite sure they enjoy interior silent communion 
with the Divine Spirit, we must differ from them in all 
kindness, when they tell us that only subjectively is 
spiritual truth revealed to man. The subjective or 
internal revelation is, no doubt, the highest, but all are 
not prepared to receive it ; therefore there is always an 
accommodation of truth to the varied necessities of 
mankind. 

So impossible does it appear to revel only in the 
thought of the infinity of the unmanifest Supreme 
Being, that those uncompromising metaphysicians, the 
ancient Brahmans, soon discoursed of a trinity by means 



166 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

of which the infinite Brahm was revealed in the uni- 
verse. As there is but one absolute color (white), but 
three primaries (red, blue, and yellow), and these three 
spring from one, and melt into one, so Brahma (Creator), 
Vishnu (Preserver), and Siva (Destroyer and Repro- 
ducer) are introduced on the pages of Sanskrit lore as 
the threefold expression of the sole Infinite. Buddhism 
here steps in and puts forward its prominent claim, that 
Vishnu is periodically incarnated on earth as a Buddha 
(wise one), and that these incarnations of Vishnu are 
necessary at intervals, to save and redeem mankind. 
Vishnu as a spiritual power never embodied in human 
form is a purely Brahmanical idea, and chimes in very 
well with the Gnostic idea of Christ never manifest in 
the flesh as a single personality, while Vishnu incarnate 
as Buddha born of a virgin, singularly precocious as a 
child, living a life of singular purity, healing the sick, 
preaching to the poor, suffering much, and then trans- 
lated without dying, finds its parallel in that far more 
popular phase of Christianity which deifies Jesus and 
declares him to be " very God of very God," in a sense 
in which it would be blasphemy to consider any human 
being God. The popular view of truth is always more 
or less beclouded with error in consequence of the very 
limited view most people are able to take. Certain it 
is that great masses of mankind grasp some idea, funda- 
mentally true, and then build upon it an enormous 
structure partly true and partly false. As with Chris- 
tianity so with Buddhism; the enlightened are but 
few, while the ignorant are very many, and frequently 
the exoteric belief of the masses is taken for the esoteric 



LECTUKE IX. 167 

verity known only to initiates. Mr. Sinnett in his 
" Esoteric Buddhism " has not, in our opinion, fathomed 
the deeper truths of Buddhism, except here and there. 
His work is learned, and gives evidence of much re- 
search and not a little deep thought; but it is not 
always theosophical, as it falls into the stupid' error so 
common in Christendom, that literal death, what Shake- 
speare calls " shuffling off this mortal coil," makes an 
immense difference in the immediate condition of the 
individual who has died to the external world. This 
conclusion is less true than almost the crudest notion 
of the most illiterate of modern Spiritualists on the 
same subject, for one will hardly find a Spiritualist in 
any part of the world who does not know enough to 
deny this palpable and misleading blunder. 

The whole difficulty concerning " separation of prin- 
ciples at death," u shells," " astral bodies," " reliquae of 
the departed," and many other crude conceptions thrust 
upon the world as arcane wisdom, has arisen from an 
utter failure to understand the mystical meaning of 
the term death as employed by spiritually enlightened 
writers the world over. " Ye are dead," " I die daily," 
and similar expressions of Paul in several of his epis- 
tles cannot be made to refer to physical dissolution 
without destroying the sense irrationally; and just as 
Paul spoke of death and dying in a figurative sense, 
so did the mystics of the far Orient, to whom, as to the 
Rosicrucians, the secret of death is transmutation. A 
more foolish misstatement can hardly be imagined than 
this we meet with continually in avowedly theosophical 
publications, which are too often theosophical only in 



168 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

name ; and as these misapprehensions are great roots 
of bitterness, occasioning much strife, contention, and 
often severe mental distress, we are determined to do 
our part in presenting what we know to be the truth 
as opposed to these errors. Mrs. E. H. Britten, though 
herself a student of occultism, and one who has done 
much to promote the study of it in others, has written 
vehement articles against Theosophy in her paper, The 
Two Worlds, published weekly in Manchester, England, 
in consequence of this foolish misconception coming so 
prominently to the front in many places. We wish she 
had corrected the error more theosophically ; but any- 
way her denunciation of it can have done no real harm 
to the theosophical movement, as only the tares can 
perish — nothing can destroy the wheat. 

The seven-fold constitution of man, as generally stated 
by "Esoteric Buddhists," is comparatively easy of accept- 
ance and provokes no reasonable hostility, though to 
the word principle used in that sense many may take 
exception, as there is in reality but one principle of 
life — essential spirit. The seven-fold constitution is 
really a misnomer, as there is but one life principle 
according to those who speak most of seven principles, 
and that one, which is both Alpha and Omega, is called 
atma, which signifies divine soul, the immortal atom of 
intelligence which, as a deathless entity, lives unchanged 
despite all that may occur to its subordinates. This 
atma, or ultimate unit of consciousness, is expressed in 
what is termed the spiritual soul, which is the seat of 
moral perception; this in turn is displayed through the 
intellectual soul, which is the seat of human reason or 



LECTURE IX. 



169 



intellect, without which man would not be man. Below 
these divine and human principles are placed the animal 
soul, which is the seat of instinct and passion ; the astral 
body, which is the invisible form or organism ; vitality, 
which is the connecting link between the astral or im- 
material body and the physical frame ; and lastly, the 
physical body itself. As involution necessarily precedes 
evolution, the first from the spiritual side is the seventh 
from the material, and vice versa. To give our readers 
a plain illustration of the idea we present the following 
table of the constitution of man : — 



ABSOLUTE UNMANIFEST LIFE. 



7. 


Atma. 




LU 

Ll_ 

_l 
IX. 

O 

Cd 
LU 

Q 
Q 

<C 


3 
< 

<0 


Involution. 

Descent of Spirit into Expression. 

1. Atma. 


6. 


Spiritual Soul. 




o 

Q. 
(0 


2. Spiritual Soul. 


5, 


Intellectual Soul. 




3. Intellectual Soul. 


4. 


Animal Soul. 




4. Animal Soul. 


3. 


Astral Body. 




5. Astral Body. 


2. 


Vitality. 


•a 

6 


6. Vitality. 


1. 


Physical Body. 

Evolution. 
Return of Spirit. 


> 


7. Physical Body. 



170 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

It will be readily seen by this table that the popular 
Kabalistic figure of the double triangle is intended to 
represent the sixfold expression of the one inexpressible 
life principle ; and those who study this w T ill see how 
vast a truth those healers have grasped, who sometimes, 
however, cannot very well explain their philosophy, who 
treat by urging f orgetf ulness of all but the atma. " God 
is well, and so are you," is quite true in every case, pro- 
vided we know what it means. The upward pointing 
triangle (A) may be read thus : — 




Animal Soul. 



The eye, or divine name in the centre, always signifies 
the immortal life principle, which is one with God, and is 
all-good in finite degree as the Infinite is all-good in infin- 
ite degree. The downward-pointing triangle (v) may 
be read thus : — 

Astral Body. 




LECTURE IX. 171 

but it is no real part of man, and thus the fourfold 
constitution is all that is admitted by those who know 
the external form to be nothing more than a temporary 
appendage. Man is one, as there is but one God. To use 
Brahmanical terms, Brahm is corresponded to by the atma 
which manifests itself in the following threefold order : 
Brahma (Creator) in the spiritual soul, Vishnu (Pre- 
server) in the intellectual soul, and Siva (Destroyer 
and Reproducer) in the animal soul. It is intuition 
which creates, reason which preserves, and animal im- 
pulses which destroy and reproduce expressions. Thus 
the three loves which Swedenborg says are in the heart 
of every man can be located ; divine love in the spiritual 
soul, neighborly love in the intellectual soul, and self- 
love in the animal soul. When these three loves are 
rightly subordinated, man is an angel ; but when they 
are inverted, he is a fiend. Thus " All is good, there is 
no evil," can receive a perfect explanation as we learn 
to know ourselves. Demon est deus inversus (a demon 
is an inverted god) is an ancient theosophical maxim 
and teaches us as we study what is perfectly in accord 
with all the researches of outward science, viz., that 
everything in nature is innately or inherently good, and 
only needs to be rightly employed to proclaim its good- 
ness. 

Evolution teaches that the component parts of ante- 
diluvian monsters have been dissipated, and that after 
the molecules were separated and eventually recom- 
bined, fair and graceful forms took the place of the 
frightful creations of bygone cycles. When Theosophy 
lifts the curtain and reveals the inner sense of the first 



172 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

chapter of Genesis, the six days' labor of the soul and 
its seventh day of rest appear before us as a beautiful 
allegory of the progress of each individual spirit from 
untempted innocence to celestial purity. Innocence 
differs from purity in that it is dove-like harmlessness, 
but nothing more ; while purity unites the wisdom of 
the serpent therewith, and is a permanent condition 
from which no fall need be feared. The four states 
mentioned in " Esoteric Buddhism" as lying beyond the 
grave, can be easily comprehended if we know that 
Avitchi, the lowest of them, corresponds to hell, a place, 
or state of remorse and misery, entered upon only by 
those whose motives have been malicious, and who have 
purposely worked to injure others. A peculiar feature 
of this condition is that while it is not and cannot be 
eternal, it appears everlasting to those who are suffering 
in it, and from this cause Dante in his " Inferno," and 
Swedenborg in his " Heaven and Hell," have pictured 
it as though unending. Avitchi is only possible to 
the very worst type of men conceivable. Kama-loca is 
an Oriental synonym for purgatory, and really means 
nothing more than a progressive condition after death, 
which the majority of persons must experience, for they 
are not low enough for Avitchi, nor high enough in the 
moral scale for Devachan, which is the Sanskrit name 
for paradise, a condition of calm repose and sweet con- 
tent, the well-earned reward of an active and self-deny- 
ing life on earth. Nirvana means ineffable blessedness, 
and describes the state of the soul when finally released 
from the need of further planetary pilgrimages. 

The planetary chain is a very interesting feature of 



LECTURE IX. 173 

the Eastern doctrine, and explains the old idea of the 
seven worlds in harmony with astronomy, at the same 
time giving us a very intelligent glimpse at the object 
of planetary creation. As there are seven notes in the 
musical scale, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, so in a scale of 
worlds there are seven planets ; but the same world does 
not always represent the same note : there are always 
seven worlds in each scale, and as a world progresses, 
it strikes the octave note and becomes the commence- 
ment of a higher scale, at which time there is another 
world ready to enter the scale as lower A, from which 
this advanced planet has departed as higher A. Say, 
for instance, that at present in this solar system, Mer- 
cury is A ; Venus, B ; Earth, C ; Mars, D ; Jupiter, E ; 
Saturn, F ; and Uranus, G. Neptune must be A in a 
scale above. In the order of development a world must 
either go forward in the scale, or go to pieces, and drop 
out of it. Some people think the later fate befell one 
planet in this system, and that the Asteroids are the 
fragments of this disrupted orb. Some very interesting 
views on astronomy will be found in the section en- 
titled "Electrical Christian Theosophy"; therefore we 
will not pursue the theme further at this point, neither 
will we enlarge upon Karma, as that is treated at length 
in a section devoted to it. In bringing this lecture to 
a close we will content ourselves with declaring that 
a fair-minded study of Hinduism leaves the student 
amazed at its agreement with Christianity esoterically 
interpreted, which everywhere forces itself on the stu- 
dent's mind. Verily there is but one esoteric religion 
under many names. 



LECTURE X. 

THROUGH THE AGES. 

A Study of the Soul's Progression through Repeated Earthly 

Experiences. 

It is almost impossible to touch upon the profoundly 
interesting subject of the repeated embodiments of the 
human soul, or the plurality of terrestrial existences, 
without feeling something of that pressure of antago- 
nistic thought which beats against the minds of those 
who are seeking to solve life's mighty problem, and 
from the prejudiced thoughts of a multitude who seem- 
ingly must dogmatize where they have no light, and 
appear as though compelled to unkindly, even fiercely, 
denounce all who have received a ray of truth from 
any source except such sources as they, in their arro- 
gance, suppose to be alone creditable, because in con- 
sonance with their own predilections. From science 
we have nothing to fear and everything to hope ; but 
from blind and self-conceited sciolism we ask no quarter 
and seek no indorsement. 

The objections to the doctrine of repeated embodi- 
ments, so far as we have heard them, are without 
exception crudely materialistic, personalistic in the nar- 
rowest sense, and not infrequently vulgar and insulting. 
For several years the author of this volume and many, 



LECTURE X. 175 

many other persons have through the public press im- 
portuned the objectors to this great mystery, as it 
appears to so many, to state reasonably, logically, and 
consistently, without puerility or venom, their best 
answer to this dogma, as they term it, and to which 
they manifest such senseless and irrepressible opposi- 
tion; but in vain. All arguments to prove it false 
have turned out weak when not spiteful; and though all 
over the world a controversy has been waging for many 
years, and is not ended yet : we have yet to see a single 
answer to the central claim, that divine justice, impartial 
equity, is only thus displayed. The innumerable ine- 
qualities apparent on every hand imperatively demand 
some just explanation. Those who oppose the theory 
of re-embodiment never answer the questions which are 
put to them. If they are theological bigots committed 
to some antiquated church dogma which is sure to be 
a perversion of some occult truth, they content them- 
selves, and strive, though usually quite unsuccessfully 
in this age, to satisfy their interlocutors with the time- 
worn and depressing reply, " We must not speculate on 
matters of religion, God having revealed to us in the 
Bible and through the ministry of the church all he 
intends us to know in this life ; probably in the here- 
after what is now mystery will be made plain." 

If the objector be a Spiritualist, he usually commences 
with an utterly illogical statement concerning relation- 
ships, entirely forgetting that no relation which is sim- 
ply of earth, in any way pertains to the spirit. Persons 
may be very near earthly relatives and at the same 
time bound to each other by the closest spiritual ties ; 



176 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

but it is equally common for those who have no tie of 
blood between them to be exceedingly near to each 
other in spirit, while the closest earthly bonds often be- 
token no spiritual relationship whatever. Not only do 
those Spiritualists who oppose the theory of re-embodi- 
ment utterly fail to realize the truth concerning real 
relations ; they confound the terms identity, individual- 
ity, and personality so bewilderingly that only one idea 
is expressed by these three words, each of which when 
rightly understood conveys a totally different idea. 
Identity pertains to the soul, individuality to the mind, 
and personality to the body. In a very fascinating 
story, published in three volumes by C. L. H. Wallace, 
Oxford Mansions, London, entitled " Through the Ages," 
the gifted author, who remains anonymous, brings for- 
ward argument after argument in favor of this much 
misunderstood but most important fact of repeated em- 
bodiments, and answers very powerfully the leading 
objections to it. For those who are not particularly 
attracted to philosophical essays, such a novel is very 
helpful and instructive. The- same remark may apply 
in great measure to " Karma," by A. P. Sinnett, which is 
obtainable everywhere at purely nominal cost, — fifteen 
to thirty-five cents, according to style of binding and 
size of type. For those who are really anxious to seri- 
ously investigate this great subject we would recom- 
mend a work entitled " Reincarnation," published by 
the Occult Publishing Company, 120 Tremont Street, 
Boston ; also, " The Soul," a series of teachings given 
through the mediumship of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, 
published by William Richmond, Roger's Park, Illinois. 



LECTURE X. 177 

Both of these works are most interesting: the former 
is historical, comparative, illustrative ; the latter, posi- 
tive and didactic in style and reasoning. Of course, 
manifold questions will arise on this subject in the 
minds of all who are seeking the light its consideration 
may help to afford. It is not to be expected that so 
vast a theme can be dealt with off-hand; nor, in the 
present stage of general knowledge, need we expect a 
thoroughly consistent statement of the whole case from 
the lips or pens of all its numerous advocates. 

Allan Kardec, the noted Frenchman, whose name, 
or rather nom de plume, is so intimately associated with 
the doctrine of re-embodiment in Europe, was by no 
means an ultimate authority on the subject, nor did he 
ever profess to be. He was among the kindest and 
most modest of men, say those who knew him best. 
His sole desire was to advance the cause of truth and 
human progress ; to this end he freely gave time, money, 
energy, and all he had to bestow, reserving for himself 
only sufficient means to enable him to live quietly in 
Paris, in rooms largely devoted to the work so near 
his heart. In the early days of Spiritism in France, 
the apartments of this noble man were freely open to 
earnest investigators in the field of psychic science, 
while all the sensitives who came in his atmosphere 
found him firm but gentle, grave but kind, ever anxious 
to give the utmost latitude to individual expression, 
and then to diligently compare the teachings given 
through different channels the one with the other, until 
he found a sufficient concord in the general statement 
to justify him in publishing them to the world in the 



178 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Revue Spirite, an excellent journal he was then editing. 
Four of his principal works — " The Spirits' Book," 
"The Medium's Book," "Heaven and Hell," and "Gene- 
sis " — are now for sale in English at the Banner of Light 
establishment, — 9 Bosworth St., Boston, — -at |1.50 per 
volume. "Heaven and Hell" is, in our opinion, the 
most intensely interesting of the series to those who 
are desirous of considering the matter from a religious 
standpoint. No matter whether or not one is prepared 
to accept all that is put forward concerning the sources 
whence the teachings were derived; wherever they came 
from, they are excellent, and whatever may be their 
defects in the opinion of any, no one can justly accuse 
them of glossing over a palpable weakness or creeping 
out through a small crevice when a question pertaining 
to universal equity is on the tapis. 

As we look over the earth to-day we see any number 
of varieties in human condition, and we are naturally 
led to inquire, Why are things as they are ? Theology 
with its " divine mysteries " may satisfy those who do 
not feel deeply on these matters, and the future life as 
mapped out by Spiritualists may seem quite satisfactory 
to those who are contented with an evasive and partial 
reply. That everything is for the best, that God does 
all things well, that all will be fully compensated in 
the hereafter, may be expressions of a great truth ; but 
the question still remains unanswered, Why are people 
so terribly unequal now ? To' this question Theosophy 
fearlessly addresses itself, and by having recourse to 
the wisdom of the ages presents the nineteenth century 
with a philosophy fully in accord with the doctrine of 



LECTUKE X. 179 

evolution, and also in perfect consonance with every 
exalted religious sentiment. Evolution is unthinkable 
if there be no such a base for it as involution supplies. 
We may trace every organism back from the most com- 
plex to the most rudimentary, to a single germ cell ; but 
such an original cell must contain within it all possi- 
bilities of future expression, or the development of a 
higher type could not take place. In the light which 
involution supplies, evolution is no longer insoluble ; 
for, back of the germ is the spiritual monad, or soul, 
the living entity, the conscious designer and builder of 
forms, which is never really confined to any material 
tabernacle, but uses one after another, the palpable 
organizations we behold, through which to display its 
latent talents. James Freeman Clarke, whose essays 
on Oriental religions are exceptionally fine, tells us in 
his u Ten Great Religions," a most marvelous produc- 
tion, which all students of Theosophy should study, that 
while he claims to actually know nothing of transmi- 
gration, its truth or error, he feels convinced that the 
enlightened of ancient time and Orient clime did not 
teach the vulgar notion entertained by the illiterate, 
that human souls after the dissolution of their physical 
bodies pass into the forms of animals; but that the 
theory of transmigration was really an idea of evolu^ 
tion : therefore the various developments of inferior 
organisms by the human entity preceded birth into 
human form instead of succeeding the death of that 
form. Now if evolution be accepted for the human 
race at large, why not for every unit in particular? 
What is there foolish or repulsive in the theory that 



180 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the vital spark of divine life animating a human organ- 
ism to-day, built an inferior form in ages past, and 
that, ever proceeding along its upward way, it is con- 
tinually advancing toward perfection in expression. 
" Art Magic " and " Ghost Land," those extraordinary 
works published about 1876, by Mrs. Emma Hardinge 
Britten, who declares them to have been written by 
"one who knows," and that one not herself, — she being 
only their translator and editor, — both take the ground 
of pre-existence, though they do not favor the idea of 
repeated embodiment in human form. In both those 
volumes a theory of "elementals" is ingeniously put 
forward to explain the genesis of the individual soul of 
man in a rational manner. Such theories are intensely 
interesting, and well worthy of consideration. We 
should imagine those who consider them conclusive 
must believe that some human entities have advanced 
further in the elemental kingdoms prior to their mani- 
festing in human form than others; and if this conject- 
ure can be fairly argued out, it certainly may do much 
to remove the terrible blot on^the posture of the univer- 
sal plan, placed there by the dogmas of those who deny 
both pre-existence and re-embodiment. 

A singular work, " The Light of Egypt," for which 
great claims are made by the author, who holds to being 
exceeding wise, and who expresses acrid hostility to 
" Esoteric Buddhism," which he unsparingly denounces 
and in many places grossly misrepresents, puts forward 
a somewhat similar view, and were it not for his de- 
nunciation of others his work would be very readable 
throughout : as it is, he, in common with all others of 



LECTURE X. 181 

his school who seek to deny whatever they do not under- 
stand, misrepresents the purpose of successive embodi- 
ments in the most important instances, and makes the 
doctrine of Karma (consequence) signify a harsh, un- 
reasonable, vindictive, unfair system of punishment, 
while it is exactly the reverse, — a perfectly equitable 
plan of education. To many minds the works of Kardec 
savor of a doctrine of expiation of sins committed in a 
former existence far too strongly, as also do certain 
writings of Anna Blackwell, still extant, some of which 
first appeared many years ago in Human Nature, a 
London periodical not issued at present. But the stress 
laid on expiatory suffering is often due to the urgent 
quest for a satisfactory answer to the query, Why do 
we suffer? which will not down. In dealing with this 
topic we desire to be particularly lucid and cautious, 
and shall therefore carefully avoid all technicalities 
and seek to present the subject so that any intelligent 
child may understand it. The human soul, according to 
Hindu Theosophy, is quite distinct from the spiritual 
soul, which is its originator and on which it depends 
for everything. This human soul, the offspring of the 
spiritual, requires discipline, all of an educational char- 
acter. It must forfeit its primeval, automatic inno- 
cence, and eventually attain the royal height of perfect 
purity in which, to use a Gospel metaphor, the wisdom 
of the serpent is united with the harmlessness of the 
dove. During probationary stages of growth the 
human soul must develop its own consciousness, and 
from choice, not compulsion, follow in all things the 
dictates of spiritual desire. To accomplish the perfect 



182 STUDIES IJST THEOSOPHY. 

individualization of this subordinate consciousness, it is 
essential that the soul should experience to the full the 
result of sowing and reaping according to its own will. 
There are no rewards and no punishments in the usual 
but wrongful acceptance of those words. Throughout 
all periods of progression, each individual reaps what 
he sows, and his next sowing is in large measure de- 
pendent upon his last reaping. There is no particular 
private destiny marked out for any individual ; there is 
a common race destiny to which all are subject, and 
this destiny is simply destination. If one man sows 
grapes and another thorns, one will reap grapes and 
the other thorns; but there is no law compelling one 
to sow fruit and another weeds ; the law is imperative 
only in its declaration, — " No man can gather grapes 
from thorns, or figs from thistles." If any one desires 
figs he must cultivate fig-trees, for figs will grow upon 
no other boughs. If one desire grapes he must culti- 
vate grape-vines, for grapes are produced nowhere else 
and . in no other manner. Thus we cannot say that 
men are either rewarded or punished in the conven- 
tional usage of these terms, but all take the conse- 
quences of their own acts, be those acts at a given time 
remembered or forgotten, and the consequence is itself 
at all times, under all circumstances, the best thing 
which could possibly happen to the person who rejoices 
or suffers by reason of its happening. 

Such puerile absurdities as an illustration drawn from 
whipping a dog for the wrong it committed when a 
puppy, put forward with all the assumption and dignity 
imaginable, in " The Light [more correctly the darkness] 



LECTURE X. 183 

of Egypt," prove the person who used so ridiculous and 
false an analogy to be anything but enlightened on the 
question he perverts. To take up his own dog and 
puppy simile, we can prove his reasoning false on his 
own ground; for had he understood the doctrine he 
assails he would have known that in its reference to 
canines as well as men it would operate thus : A man 
(or a dog) has contracted an injurious habit when a 
youth (or a puppy), the consequence of which has 
entailed upon him certain suffering, which suffering 
grows out of the act itself: such suffering is not a 
judicial punishment in the popular sense ; it is a result, 
and as such in no way dependent upon memory or for- 
getfulness of the act which occasioned it. Now if the 
penalty following the act proceeds from the act as natu- 
rally as grapes grow on grape-vines and figs on fig-trees, 
how can one pronounce the suffering in any arbitrary 
sense a punishment? But our philosophy does not 
desert us at that point by any means; it carries us 
much further into an understanding of universal recti- 
tude, by assuring us that the penalty is educational 
and remedial. Thus what we suffer is not intended to 
punish us for doing amiss, but to lead us to where we 
shall not err in future. The best medical doctors all 
agree that pain serves a double end ; it calls our atten- 
tion to some error, and at the same time is caused by 
an effort of nature to heal a wound ; consequently we 
do not need nor should we seek exemption from pen- 
alty, but deliverance from the ignorant or perverse 
mental state which occasions suffering, and which is 
outgrown by means of suffering. The whole doctrine 



184 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

of Karma when reasonably explained is a simple recog- 
nition of the perpetual operation of immutable cause 
and effect. Sin produces suffering, and suffering wipes 
out the sin ; just as when one's garments are stained 
they need cleansing, and to cleanse them means work. 

The present system of incarcerating criminals appears 
to us entirely wrong, while capital punishment is an 
offense against reason, justice, and humanity. Hospi- 
tals, penitentiaries, industrial schools (miscalled such), 
lunatic asylums, and a host of other semi-barbaric insti- 
tutions are no safeguards against crime; those who 
advocate them as necessities are utterly blind to the 
real wants of society. The idea of punitive expiation 
seems to have so befogged the minds of a majority, that 
it is well-nigh impossible to all at once clear the mental 
air sufficiently to let in the light of reason upon the 
popular mind concerning this subject. No life is for 
punishment, no experience is to pay some one out in a 
harsh, vindictive sense for some error of a previous 
existence ; but effects will follow causes in the natural 
order, and hence, if the effect _of previous folly is pres- 
ent suffering, is not that suffering a result which 
cannot be avoided, and which will in due time pro- 
duce the peaceable fruit of righteousness? Theosophy 
teaches that all souls are equal ; that the first expres- 
sion of every soul is at the foot of the ladder of prog- 
ress ; every rung is a distinct term of experience, while 
the spaces between the rungs are periods passed in the 
invisible state. During the interim between embodi- 
ments the soul is neither unconscious or inactive, but 
still moving forward, till, when that stage of experience 



LECTURE X. 185 

is at an end, the next ultimated expression, though in a 
material form, is always the next step in the forward 
order. 

Some very vulgar errors are exceedingly common, 
and among them none more prevalent than the belief 
that u reward " and " punishment " can be determined 
by one's outward circumstances ; that the rich are 
always favored while the poor are invariably under 
chastisement, is a very popular but most insane mistake. 
Some rich people are very happy while others are 
wretched ; the same is true of the poor ; neither riches 
nor poverty can then be regarded as indicators of spirit- 
ual, moral, or intellectual status ; but wherever we find 
real nobility, sweet contentment, and pure enjoyment, 
in a word, blessed satisfaction with one's condition 
whatever it may be, we witness tokens of spiritual 
unfoldment. All that we can ever see our way to teach 
or advocate on this subject of successive embodiments 
is, that in the cycle of the ages everything is equalized, 
no one is favored above another ; those who are now 
born in the inferior races will some way be born in the 
superior ; those who are now superior have once been 
inferior ; all start at one point, all ultimately arrive at 
one goal. The manifold discrepancies of the present 
will all be cleared up in the light of the future, so that 
we shall all realize that whatever occurs is for the 
best; every obstacle we meet we need to encounter 
and overcome. 

But before we can grasp this philosophy we must 
study the nature of death. 

Death to a Theosophist means death to old conditions, 



186 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the death of the animal instincts, followed by a resur- 
rection to spiritual consciousness, which, like a glorious 
Phoenix bursts its bonds when freed from the control 
of earthly passions. This death is truly represented by 
the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, or by such 
emblems as the Easter egg. Death is a casting-off of 
an outer shell, deliverance from the trammels of the 
senses, as the spiritual life-principle works its way up- 
ward. Resurrection is the triumph of spirit over the 
thralldom of sense. A great deal in all of us needs to 
die. As animals we die never to rise again; but when 
our outer clothing is cast aside, we, i.e. our real selves, 
ascend to higher states of conscious life. Death, when 
understood in its true significance, means spiritual ele- 
vation, not physical dissolution. The apostle Paul 
rightly exclaims, "O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory?" In this saying, his 
meaning is that death is only a casting aside of an out- 
grown shell, as a once imprisoned bird breaks from its 
calcareous environment, and rejoices in deliverance 
from its prison. There would be no fear of death if 
people did not depend on the body for happiness. We 
should be willing to wear it, and use it as long as we 
need it, but be ready to cast it off when it can be of no 
further use, with no doubt of the spirit-world being a 
better state than this. Strive to make it a matter of 
perfect indifference to you whether you remain here or 
go hence. We are always at work in the spiritual uni- 
verse. There is no real difference to the spirit between 
birth and death, and as we rise to a consciousness of 
our real being we deny that we ever were born or ever 



LECTURE X. 187 



can die ; we realize that we are forever. We affirm 
that we have nothing to fear from death, and Ave 
thereby overcome its power to bereave us of what we 
prize and love. Those who live in the spirit pass to 
the unseen state without any suffering ; they gradually 
dismiss their physical environment, until the ultimate 
stage appears only like passing through a beautiful 
gateway of transition, as it appeared to those great 
adepts, Enoch and Elijah. Is it necessary that a house 
should tumble down because we are ready to move out 
of it? need the body we are ready to vacate first be- 
come foul and loathsome? The true philosophy of 
Being is expressed in Longfellow's immortal couplet, 
" Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of 
the soul" Soul has a prior existence to the body, and 
" returns to God who gave it." The experience of a 
spirit on earth may be likened to that of a child at a 
boarding-school, or of a youth while an apprentice to 
a trade away from home. He remembers his home with 
love, and enjoys it on his return as he never could have 
enjoyed it had he never left it. The "elder brother" 
of the Prodigal Son, though unfallen was the inferior 
of the two, as he had not the tender loving spirit of the 
father toward his brother, who, though fallen, had risen 
again. The prodigal, who returned to his home, had 
fought life's battle, and won its prize. We develop 
from manhood to angelhood, as a child develops from 
infancy to maturity. The glory of the angel does not 
equal that of the archangel, but the archangel was once 
a man, as the man was once an infant. All reflections 
that lead to an intelligent recognition of Theosophy 



188 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

bring us to a point where we comprehend the true rela- 
tions of spirit and body here and hereafter ; they there- 
fore aid us practically to an incalculable extent in our 
endeavors to effectually banish all errors and supersti- 
tions which produce misery on earth. 

We regard the physical body as a necessary tool in 
the hands of a spiritual workman. Our. bodies are con- 
structed for a definite purpose ; they are tools for work 
as well as dresses to wear. They are brought into ex- 
istence from necessity. The spirit forms its body as a 
workman constructs his tools. If the question arises, 
" Why, then, do we not all have the bodies we would 
like?" we must bear in mind that we cannot always 
externalize our thought perfectly, even in the making 
of a dress or coat. We have not as yet perfect power 
over material, even with the best patterns before us. 
People are often very much dissatisfied with their own 
efforts, and much prefer the workmanship of others. 
The ideal always antedates the actual; a perfect ex- 
pression of the ideal is reserved for a condition in this 
world, or some other, where we have gained complete 
ascendency over all material; then we shall be clothed 
upon with bodies of glorious spiritual form. There is 
no such thing as creation of substance, but only creation 
of form. Forms come and go, substance abides. When 
bodies are formed nothing comes into being, and when 
they die nothing goes out of being: there is only a 
change in appearance. Creation is organization, ex- 
pression; seeming death is simply dematerialization, 
the disappearance of some object from the realm of 
mortal perception. From the standpoint of the Eternal 



LECTURE X. 189 

there can be no death. There can be no change in 
divine law, but there is frequently great change in our 
conception of it ; there can be no change in truth, but 
only in our views of truth. All outward things change, 
because outward things are manifestations of finite ideas: 
all intelligence moves in incessant but ever-diversified 
activity. Why do worlds change, why do they advance 
from infancy to old age, and thence to reabsorption 
into the element whence they sprang ? Their changes 
from first to last are resultant from the condition of 
some unseen mind working out its capabilities in ex- 
pression. An organ may remain in one condition 
during all the years you are studying music, but you 
are capable of evolving at one time far more intricate 
harmonies from it than you could at another; the 
capacity of the organ has not changed, but the musician 
has ; the organ has never been educated, but you have. 
Planets and human bodies, as we behold them out- 
wardly, are constantly acted upon by intelligences who 
are always advancing. 

The story of Pygmalion and Galatea, in which the 
statue comes to life and is made to speak, is illustrative 
of the truth of spiritual evolution. The sculptor pro- 
duces a marble form by means of his intellect and 
affections, which somewhat embodies his ideal; he 
breathes his life into the work of his own hands ; it 
could never become himself : still the statue was made 
to breathe. Man's outward form can have no life in 
itself, but it is an animated statue made by the soul ; it 
is will and affection manifest in form. We may even 
fancy the soul's animated statue to have a wavering, 



190 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

wandering will of its own, which often knoivs better 
than it does. Everything we call objective in mineral, 
vegetable, or animal form, expresses some mental con- 
dition ; it is an embodied result of mental breath, but 
not always a faithful reproduction of the one who 
breathes. Human souls have doubtless lived for ages 
before they expressed themselves in mortal form. Man 
is the creator of everything below him. It is far more 
reasonable to state that the action of a human mind 
made a monkey than that man ever ivas a monkey. 
Man, as a spiritual entity, is now and always in the 
spiritual world. If our thought has passed through the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms, they have naturally 
proceeded from the mind of man previous to his build- 
ing a form, in which his thought could more perfectly 
express itself. We can only understand evolution in the 
light of involution. We never are embodied; we live 
now and ever in the spiritual state, but the soul gives 
forth various impulsions, which produce forms, and 
endow them with more or less perfection. When we 
rise to conceive of ourselves as we really are, we shall 
know that we have never been on earth at all, our real 
selves have created mortal forms, and endowed them 
with life, as the sculptor created and endowed the statue. 
The next question which arises, is, "How can Ave 
know each other in spirit ? " We know each other in 
soul-life by nothing that is manifest to sense. Do we 
any of us really know ourselves ? does the lower know 
the higher nature? Most people live so much in the 
lower nature that they cannot know themselves in 
spirit. The " fall of man " is his losing sight of his 



LECTURE X. 191 

spiritual nature amid the busy scenes of external activ- 
ity. The lower ego must find the higher ego before 
man can, in any true sense, be said to know himself. 
In the deepest sense we never had mothers, and never 
were born. Our spiritual being did not commence with 
mortal birth, but our spiritual entity was the cause of 
physical conception. Spirit causes mothers to become 
mothers through a spiritual impulse, too often unrecog- 
nized. No woman can give life to a child. We ac- 
knowledge spiritual Deity and spiritual humanity. 
Man must come to an understanding of his true self, 
and of the principle of spiritual being, before he can 
know his own soul, and walk in the light of the Spirit, 
which is the only true Being. 



[original poem.] 

THE LAW OF GROWTH: THE PRIOR EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL, ITS 
EARTHLY DISCIPLINE, AND RETURN TO ITS PREMAL HOME. 

From the sphere of spirit, the realm of the soul, 

The spirit descends to earth, 
And here takes on its external form, 

Born of earth's changeful birth. 
For here it must strive for a while 

On the earth with all forms of sense, 
To develop all power from within itself, 

And gain wonderful recompense, 

The soul in the realm of the soul above 
Is like an unplanted seed, 



192 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Like a beautiful acorn that yet will grow 

To an oak, whose living seed 
Shall be scattered through distant ages, 

Over ocean, land, and sea ; 
Through the many worlds that roll in space, 

Amid heaven's immensity. 

The law of growth is this wonderful law, 

That the spirit contains within 
. Whatever power or majesty 

Is unfolded; for it can win 
No added power by the earth's control, 

Though earth can display the power of soul. 
Like a seed that is planted deep in the earth 

Nothing is added thereto, 
Though the rains have descended, the sunbeams 
shone, 

Though the balmiest zephyrs blew; 
Though man should cultivate the soil 

And irrigate with care 
The place where the seed is sheltered, 

Yet the harvest will declare 
The special form of the special seed, 

And no other can spring from the seed, 
But the body expressed as that special flower, 

For God gives to each seed its especial dower. 

If the soul of man is embodied here, . 

And bound to the earth for a while, 
Like an alien pilgrim away from home, 

While the heavens above it smile; 
If weary and worn and ofttimes sad, 

The spirit shall turn for light 



LECTURE X. 193 

And ask of the rolling orbs above, 
For their testimony bright; 

And ask of the wondrous fields of space, 

" Oh, what is God's decree ? " 
All worlds and all souls will answer that 

Throughout eternity 
The law of growth by God's mighty power 

Ordains the expanding seed, 
And its outward manifestation here 

Of what is within — indeed 

It may seem that all earthly care, 

That all earthly pain and loss, 
And all the burdens one may bear 

And the heavy weight of the cross, 
Are unneeded by the soul, 

And you may complain to God 
And ask the wherefore and the why 

Of griefs that spring from the sod. 

But angel hosts in their bright array 

Would bring you this wonderful dower, 
Would tell you that all their glorious songs, 

Which are their spirit's flower; 
That all the music and the crown, 

And the brightest lights above, 
Are answers to the spirit's cry 

For more room to unfold its love. 

If among the cherubs and seraphs fair 

A soul to its master shall say, 
"Oh, may I go down to toil on the earth 

And travel life's mystic way ? 



194 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

I see the archangels passing fair, 

In their hierarchies of light, 
And I know though innocent and pure — 

My robes are not so bright. 

"I hear of their deeds of great renown, 

I read in their love-lit eyes 
The wonderful story of victory gained; 

And when I with ecstasy 
Look on you my angel guide, I ask, 

i Why am I not such as thee ? ; " 
The angel answers the infant soul, 

"My child, if you come to me 
And ask of my glory and wondrous state, 

Inquiring the reason why, 
I must tell you of struggle on many a world, 

In many a time passed by; 

"Of the gate of birth and the gate of death 

Ere my soul was rounded forth 
In the splendor of that innocence 

Which triumphed over wrath; 
In the splendor of that perfect love 

And of that wisdom bright 
That links me to the radiant realms 

Of cloudless heavenly light." 

If the soul shall again exclaim, 

"I would be such as thee; 
Is there no way whereby I may 

Gain such a high degree ? 
Are there no means for me to trace 

The pathway to the skies ? 



LECTUKE X. 195 

Oh ! can I never wear the crown, 
Can there never in my eyes 

" Shine that light of wisdom divine 

Which in yours is more bright than day ? " 
The angel makes answer : " The way is dark 

And long, and thou must stray 
For many a cycle far from those 

To you the dearest and best, 
And toil on earth full many a time 

Till thy soul is fully blest." 

Then the fairy child of angelic light, 

The cherub and seraph fair, 
Consents, yea, desires to leave its home 

And the beauties over there. 
For into the waters of " Lethe" dark 

The soul must needs descend, 
And then a child is born on earth; 

As the soul its path doth wend 
Adown from the skies so fair, 

The trailing light from above 
But dimly lights its earthly way, 

And dimly foreshadows its love. 
And a child is born with many a tear, 

And imprisoned a while in sense, 
The captive spirit must sigh and groan 

And patiently wait its recompense. 

But after all toils of earth, 

When the battle is fought and won, 
When the life of the spirit is rounded out, 

Then more glorious than the sun — 



196 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Not cherub nor seraph, but angel bright, 

At length an archangel fair, 
In one of the highest spheres of heaven — 

The soul can then declare ; 

"I have fought the fight, I have won my crown," 

For the soul goes back again, 
Like the prodigal returning home, 

With experience not in vain. 
And the soul then turns to the angel guide, 

Who makes answer, "Thou'rt such as I, 
For the life thou hast lived, the toil thou hast borne, 

Has lifted thy spirit on high." 

Then all the ages, the weary years, 

Full of trials and sorrows below, 
To quickened memory pass along 

As a wondrous fantastic show: 
And the panorama is all outspread, 

And the many lives in one, 
Like many a link in a golden chain, 

Will prove how the work is done. 

Through long, long growth to the perfect tree 

From the little angelic seed. 
Is the soul's unfoldment to perfect light, 

For life is blest indeed. 
And you need not complain, you need not sigh, 

And you never need shed a tear, 
For all the burdens that here you bear, 

Though they last through many a year, 

Are at length exchanged for a crown of light 
Where the flowers can ne'er decay, 



LECTURE X. 197 

And the victory gained, through eternal years 
Is your joy, and your light will stay. 

Then work ye well and bear your load 

Whatever the burden be, 
Knowing your earthly discipline 

For a glad immortality 
Is for growth to the planted seed 

Which, pure as a snow-white dove, 
Finds at length in the home divine 

Perfect wisdom blent with love. 



LECTURE XL 

A FURTHER STUDY OF EMBODIMENT. — THE LAW OF 
KARMA (SEQUENCE), AND HOW IT OPERATES IN 
DAILY LIFE. 

The preceding lecture has led us up to where we 
can affirm that though all spirit is in essence good, it 
needs experience to unfold its capacities. The soul 
prior to embodiment is like an unplanted seed ; physical 
form gives it opportunity to expand. Many think that 
souls come to earth merely for expression, in the smaller 
sense of that word; but if after a struggle through 
many existences the soul were only converted to its 
primal state, all effort and earthly discipline would be 
of no avail whatever. All souls are equally pure in 
essence ; but the soul is not powerful like God ; it has 
no such knowledge as God possesses. If our knowl- 
edge is finite and His is infinite, there must be an infinite 
difference between infinite and finite power ; therefore 
we can understand eternal progression, which means 
our unending advancement in power and knowledge. 
God is the only infinite : He is all-powerful Love and 
Wisdom. Eternal good-will, the pure beneficence of 
the Infinite brings all beings into existence and endows 
them with the power and privilege of perpetually draw- 
ing nearer to Him in their own- consciousness. We are 



LECTURE XI. 199 

constantly advancing nearer to infinite knowledge and 
power, but the goal is always beyond us. The human 
soul is as pure as God, but capable of infinite advance- 
ment in knowledge. Souls are embodied on earth to 
acquire and to unfold, as well as to express. The efforts 
of finite souls bring worlds and bodies into existence. 
As soon as we have learned all we can in this present 
state, and there is therefore no longer need of our fur- 
ther embodiment on earth, we advance to a higher 
planet. When we have outgrown all love of earth and 
all yearning for it, we shall live only in spirit ; but so 
long as we retain earthly attractions, they will draw us 
into realms where earthly experiences can be gained. 
The earth is a magnet to us until we have overcome all 
sensuous attraction, and put away all " childish things " 
through the higher development of understanding. We 
are drawn to earth just so long as any desire for earthly 
things lurks within us, and we are often brought (seem- 
ingly) involuntarily into whatever outward state corre- 
sponds to our mental condition. When we attain to 
that perfect state of growth of which neither eye nor 
ear nor heart can yet conceive, we reach the true 
"home of the soul," the eternal world, or " kingdom of 
heaven," the absolute Nirvana of unalloyed and perpet- 
ual bliss. We have then reached the end of our jour- 
ney, so far as our spiritual pilgrimage is at present 
perceived by any of us. What further heights there 
may be for us to climb, in states beyond our present 
conception, altogether removed from time and sense, 
none should attempt dogmatically to decide ; though of 
this we may feel assured, that the conscious immortal 



200 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

entity, the real ego, will be forever reaching out to a 
yet more glorious destiny. 

In the Kabala the statement is made that all worlds 
and forms are brought into existence, not by En-Soph 
(Supreme Wisdom) directly, but through the action of 
subordinate deities designated Elohim. There can be 
only one supreme life, infinitely good ; but the one con- 
tains the multitude. Souls always have existed and 
always will. In the eternal world it is always now. 
Each individual soul can say "I am that I am" in being, 
though not in existence. Existence is but an external 
manifestation of being. The unembodied soul is as 
perfectly pure and divine as the Eternal Soul, in the 
sense of spotless innocence at least. In our highest 
conception of ourselves we know we are perfectly pure, 
but we must learn to distinguish carefully between the 
divine soul (Atma) and the human soul. The divine soul 
creates (or emanates) the individual human spirit ; the 
divine soul is the ultimate atom of self-conscious life 
which physical scientists have never discovered ; they 
can only discover molecules and monads, which are 
aggregations of atoms, but never do they find an atom. 
The absolute atom is entirely beyond recognition by 
means of the five bodily senses, and can only be appre- 
hended spiritually. This divine atom, in its endeavor 
to express itself, creates the " spiritual soul," which is a 
secondary emanation ; the divine soul belongs to the 
Elohim, and is a child of God. It is the human spirit 
which needs earthly discipline and experience. Now 
we cannot any of us begin at the top of the ladder. 
Everything originates in spirit; matter is the lowest 



LECTURE XI. 201 

vibration of spirit. We see everything on earth, as it 
were, through inverted lenses, for we see effects without 
their causes. Jacob's ladder symbolizes embodiment for 
experience ; it represents the descent of spirit into 
matter and its return to its source. There can be no 
self-existent matter; there is but one eternal homoge- 
neous substance, but this is heterogeneously expressed. 
Matter is the lowest expression of this one substance, 
and is non-existent in the realm of cause, for in absolute 
reality all is Spirit. The esoteric doctrine admits 
matter only as an appearance in time to sense : spirit 
alone is both Alpha and Omega. The spiritual soul, 
the human soul, and the animal soul form a trinity in 
expression ; but the Atma is the sole origin of all. The 
spiritual soul is expressed through intuition, the human 
soul through reason, and the animal soul through in- 
stinct. We all possess these three so-called principles. 
Intuition is a moral sense, reason is purely intellectual, 
while instinct is animal perception. We outgrow ani- 
mal perception as we lose hope in certainty and belief 
in knowledge, or as we lose the shell when the bird 
emerges from it, and the bud as it becomes the 
flower : we shall at length conquer all limitation. The- 
osophists usually place the human soul (intellectual 
principle) between the animal soul which tends to earth 
and the spiritual soul which soars heavenward: though 
intellect may often aspire, it is constantly vibrating and 
faltering in its allegiance between spirit and matter. It 
is for each individual to decide whether he will volun- 
tarily unite himself with the spiritual universe, or re- 
main susceptible to lower influences. If he choose the 



202 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

latter, it must result in moral suicide or death. Each 
one must individually decide whether he will live after 
the flesh or in the spirit. Herein is contained the mean- 
ing of all allegories setting forth the temptation and 
fall of man. If there were no lower states in the uni- 
verse, we could not reach the higher. Intellectual cul- 
ture alone is not sufficient for mankind, for many 
intellectual people give themselves to vice. The spir- 
itual soul, through intuition, like a good genius, is ever 
urging us onward and upward ; while our evil genius 
(animal soul) is ever attracting us downward toward 
its own plane. The fourth principle in man (animal 
soul) must be the servant of the fifth, and the fifth of 
the sixth, or chaos (discord) is inevitable. This sub- 
ordination of the lower to the higher answers the old 
question concerning good and evil, light and shadow, 
which constitute the foreground and background of 
existence ; but it is light that reigns forever ; the 
shadow does its work and is then absorbed in the light 
w T hich alone made it possible. In the light of re-em- 
bodiment, the idea of punishment is partly true and 
partly false. By punishment we do not mean retalia- 
tion, but means for unfoldment, education, and expan- 
sion through suffering. We must understand what we 
are, before we can comprehend our mission, or con- 
ceive why we are embodied at all. Man spiritually 
is a perfect unit ; in manifestation, a trinity in unity : 
the upward-pointing triangle represents the mental, the 
moral, and the spiritual in man, while at the centre 
shines the central sun, Atma, the true Ego, the indi- 
vidualizing principle, which is forever the child of God, 



LECTURE XI. 203 

and, like its divine Author, incapable of sin, sickness, 
or sorrow. 

Varying degrees of unfoldment account for differ- 
ences in people, but these differences are only external. 
The divine soul of man is the child of God, and never 
varies from goodness or holiness ; the soul being per- 
fect in purity, even while expressed on earth. When 
we sin, we do not live in union with this divine prin- 
ciple. All we recognize of ourselves ordinarily is very 
much less than our true selves ; we have never made a 
full discovery of what we are, or of our real powers. 
Sons of men, in rare instances only, have come to 
know they are sons of God. Many have come to a 
better understanding of this divine truth than others. 
Whenever we dwell on the successive embodiments of 
spirit, we endeavor to show that all is in harmony with 
God's perfect law of justice, in consequence of which 
there can be no respect of persons. The Buddhist doc- 
trine of Karma is simply an Oriental mode of portray- 
ing divine justice as always acting impartially; its 
entire philosophy is a vindication of divine justice in 
an application of the law of spiritual involution and 
physical evolution in every individual case. The doc- 
trine of evolution teaches falsity when not interpreted 
spiritually. How often we hear of a man's being super- 
latively gifted, when in reality his gifts are powers 
acquired in a previous expression of his soul when he 
worked as others work now who are acquiring similar 
gifts. There is no way of justly explaining the marked 
differences between people which we all observe, but 
by the law of Karma, or sequence. If all persons to-day 



204 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

enjoyed equal knowledge of truth, all would appear 
equal ; if we all knew the right and did it, we should 
be entirely free from pain and trouble ; but do we all, 
in our present expression, have equal opportunities of 
knowing the truth ? Are there not multitudes on earth 
to-day who have no adequate opportunity of acquiring 
spiritual knowledge ? The reason is found in the law 
of Karma, which Theosophy explains. 

Karma regulates our opportunities. In the use we 
make of them we create good, and in misuse, or failure 
to utilize opportunity, we make evil Karma. One may 
have the opportunity to learn certain things, while his 
nearest friend may be so situated as to never find such 
knowledge within his reach. Why? because he had 
not grown to meet such opportunity. Then in relation 
to external affairs, take an example : Two persons may 
advertise for a position ; one obtains a favorable reply, 
another receives none. Thus does Karma operate in 
daily life. Some persons have "gifts" others cannot 
cultivate. But remember we are never at a standstill; 
we are making Karma perpetually. Our past has made 
our present, and our present is making our future. We 
only live one life after all, but our experience of life is 
divided into many parts, and just as our present is the 
result of our past, our next condition will be the result 
of our present efforts, for we are incessantly manufac- 
turing Karma. We are creatures of past Karma only 
so far as immediate opportunity is concerned; to-morrow 
we shall be swayed by the Karma we are making to-day. 
No endeavor is by any means valueless. Whatever 
gift we possess, whatever possibility of advancement is 



LECTURE XI. 205 

now ours, is due to something we have learned in our 
past, when we laid up the treasure which is now ours. 
As it teaches that everything finally rests with the 
individual, the doctrine of Karma is, therefore, most 
encouraging, hopeful, and inspiring, not depressingly 
fatalistic as so many people misunderstand it. What is 
fate ? Not something arbitrarily imposed upon us : our 
present condition is but the result of our previous life. 
Whether we remember making Karma or not, our 
Karma is of our own manufacture, and this is our pres- 
ent limitation. We rise beyond this through better 
effort in this existence than we made in our previous 
one. The soul in its first embodiment has no Karma. 
When we have conquered Karma we are controllers, 
not creatures of circumstances any longer. To attain 
to a Karmaless condition is to complete the cycle of 
embodiments, and attain Nirvana. 

Some people seem " darlings of fortune," while others 
are always " unlucky." It is a false theory that states 
it to be God's will that some should enjoy all the bless- 
ings, and others endure all the hardships of life. In 
regard to our failures when we try hard to succeed, and 
all the events we do not as yet understand, we must 
conclude we have not grown to where we can always 
attract, or be benefited by what we desire. Our trials 
are preparations for a state where we shall receive all 
we crave when we crave only good. There is some 
good and adequate reason why we have not succeeded 
hitherto ; but past failure is no evidence of future mis- 
fortune. All failure has done something for us ; it has 
been a means of development, and as we progress we 



206 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

are not really the persons who failed, so there is no 
reason why we should not succeed in future. King 
Bruce of Scotland, when in prison, watched a spider fail 
in spinning his web six times, but succeed with the 
seventh attempt. The six failures made the success of 
the seventh effort possible. This spider was a working 
illustration of the universal principle of growth. The 
spider had not gained the experience and skill after the 
fifth attempt it had acquired after the sixth, when it 
had developed to a condition which culminated in suc- 
cess. In all life's endeavors we win the prize only after 
humiliation and defeat. The triumphs of the success- 
ful embody the proposition that some people have out- 
grown the states in which others still are. All souls 
have the same to conquer, but at a given moment all 
are not equally far advanced. We should take all the 
humiliations we experience as a needful part of our 
education. There is really no luck or fortune, but one 
road for all to travel, — the path of growth. We must 
all climb one ladder of effort. Whatever comes to us 
is a result of our position on the ladder, and our posi- 
tion to-day is the result of all the steps we have taken 
hitherto. The understanding of Karma causes us never 
to dread ultimate failure, never to look forward with 
forebodings as though any were doomed to failure, but 
to press hopefully onward with such opportunities as 
are born of past accomplishment. Without special 
prophetic vision we can all see the results of our pre- 
vious experiences in our condition at present. If we 
can bear fame and riches without haughtiness, and fill 
a high position well, we shall not need to sweep cross- 



LECTURE XI. 207 

ings in a future embodiment. The good ruler does not 
return as a slave, but despots must acquire humility 
through humble service, learning the blessedness of 
ministration in the lowest positions. Whatever good 
one has earned one retains forever. As everything is 
a direct effect of some cause, every one should feel, " I 
have only to make a proper effort to succeed. I am as- 
sured of ultimate success. I am called to pass through 
no experiences others have not passed through." It is 
precisely with the individual as with the race, for the 
race is only a man on a larger scale. The race under- 
goes what each man undergoes till his final conquest 
over all material things. We are all growing from an 
imperfect to a perfect state. We should not look 
regretfully upon the past, but acknowledge a divine 
unity of purpose displayed in all experiences. 

Instead of the world being about to be destroyed, it 
is becoming ever more and more perfect. When finally 
the spirit that has operated upon it withdraws, it will 
pass into obscuration, but will again be brought forth 
as a school for other minds, who will in their turn also 
recede from it. These vast periods or cycles of birth 
and death are the " days and nights of Brahm," which 
are ever succeeding each other : but a perpetual monot- 
onous round is not the destiny of any individual; for 
every individual there is no going back, but, on the. 
contrary, perpetual progress. The world is always a 
school, in which there are days for action, and nights 
for sleep. The scholar who once graduates never goes 
back to the infant school as a learner, but steadily pro- 
gresses until he at length reaches Nirvana, or heaven 



208 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

(the highest state conceivable). We shall all at length 
become Karmaless, and thus outgrow our "fate," and 
rise superior to everything we now call accident. Our 
experience on earth qualifies us all for a higher life. 
Our present state is that of the chrysalis ; the next will 
be that of the butterfly. A poet aptly says, " here in 
the body pent " ; for this state is one of limitation. But 
it may be asked, Does not the butterfly die as well as 
the chrysalis ? Yes ; for all external forms dissolve, but 
the soul dwells in eternity, and is forever the same. 
When the distinction between the true identity and the 
fleeting personality of man is grasped, there will be no 
further difficulty in understanding ourselves as distinct 
from our embodiments. 

The question is often asked, Does the law of Karma 
make no provision for the forgiveness of sin? We 
reply : It is founded on eternal justice, which is the 
abiding rock of truth. The internal proof of any theory 
is that it harmonizes with perfect justice. Having a 
keen sense of justice born within ourselves, we know that 
whatever is just is true, and that whatever is unjust 
cannot be true. Justice is the universal solvent, the 
sole interpreter . of all the mysteries of existence. Is 
the law of Karma just or not ? It is often said, " to err 
is human ; to forgive, divine," but we are told that 
Karma allows of no forgiveness. Is it not less than 
divine to forgive ? Can your highest idea of God be of 
one who forgets and forgives? Can we believe Him 
capable of anger, wrath, or resentment? So long as 
our idea of God is semi-barbaric, so long is the Divine 
Being endowed by our thought with human limitations, 



LECTURE XI. 209 

but no longer. God is no more than human if he for- 
gives, and not even human in the highest sense, because 
forgiveness implies an alteration in the mind of the one 
who forgives. God can never change his mind, for he 
is never less than perfect ; he can never change his at- 
titude toward his children, though they may frequently 
change their attitude toward him. God is never angry, 
though he may appear so to us when we hold anger in 
our hearts toward our brethren. What a lesson for 
humanity there is in " neither do I condemn thee ; go 
and sin no more." Jesus, when on the cross, said, 
"Father, forgive them" — as an example to the unfor- 
giving, not to ask God to do what he otherwise 
might not have done ; but in tender pity for man's im- 
perfection, to teach man the needed lesson of forgive- 
ness. It is often our duty to forgive others, because 
we are imperfect ; but God, being perfect, can never be- 
come angry, and therefore He has nothing to forgive. 
God is never anything but Infinite Love and Wisdom. 
It is carnally human to err ; it is humanly divine to for- 
give, because when man forgives he puts away his own 
error. It was once thought that in the thunder clap 
God revealed his anger ; the lightning flash was inter- 
preted by the Romans as the fury of imperial Jove, but 
storms are now regarded as footprints of Divine Good- 
ness. The true philosopher sees only infinite love and 
wisdom in everything; all is good even when incom- 
prehensible. All of God's actions are based on infinite 
goodness ; man's are not. Theosophy gives us this 
higher conception of an unchangeable Deity. Now if 
Grod, Law, and Nature are inseparable ; if immutable, 



210 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Natural Law is the law of Divine Mind, law is simply 
the expression of Divine Will. We thus get rid of 
everything but God, and attain to pure Theism. God 
is the eternal cause present in the effect; the effect 
must partake of the nature of the cause. What, then, is 
inexorable, immutable law, but the unvarying manifes- 
tation of divine benevolence ? Karma is only sequence, 
effect following cause ; and if some consequences of 
human folly are painful, they are not the less gracious 
and beneficial. 

The operation of Karma often brings us bereave- 
ments ; but there are no bereavements except to sense. 
So long as we place our affections on things of sense, 
we need the discipline of losing their object : thus the 
bitterest experience is a stepping-stone to a higher 
affection. True happiness does not depend on external 
things, but on peace of mind. A bereaved mother 
might develop a love so pure and unselfish for her 
child, a love so full of comprehension of what was 
really best for him, that she would come to know her- 
self forever in the real child's presence. Then there 
would be for her no more sense of loss or bereavement ; 
she would be more conscious of the spirit world than of 
earth, and absolutely certain her child was with her and 
loving her. It is the animal soul in us which continu- 
ally wars against the spirit. This lower element occa- 
sions all our grief. Spiritual science declares death to 
be only belief; but who entertains the belief? Not the 
one who appears to die, but they who pass through the 
bereavement occasioned by belief in another's death. 
He who is supposed to have died, has not passed 



LECTURE XI. 211 

through a belief of death at all. If he could speak to 
your consciousness, he would say, " I am alive and with 
you, just as before." The belief in death is on the 
earthly side; the one who has "passed over " knows he 
has not died. How can a living soul believe in its own 
death, and how can God know anything of death when 
all live unto him ? How can he sympathize with your 
physical loss when your friends are not lost? God 
must see everything in its true light; how, then, can he 
sympathize with what has never occurred ? We fancy 
people die, but that is our error, and we continually 
ask God to recognize it. If God is infinitely true, how 
can he recognize what has no reality, what never took 
place, and never can take place ? If we knew the why 
and wherefore of all our experience, if we could take 
the point of view that celestials take, we should see at 
once that all is good ; we should know that trial is good 
in disguise, and exclaim with Job : Shall we not receive 
from the hand of God what seemeth good and what 
seemeth evil ? We give two opposing names to one 
impartial dispensation of divine goodness. What we 
call good at one time we call evil at another. At the 
true point of observation we see that all is good; there 
is no evil ; all things are for the best. 

When we arrive at this point, truth blots from our 
vision all sight of tears and sorrow. We then know 
that the eternal purpose is fulfilled in everything. 
There must come a period when we shall all know that 
whatever we have undergone was needful to our unfold- 
ment, but the flower is not foreseen by all when the 
seed is planted, though the flower is in the seed. Exter- 



212 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

nally speaking, the seed is before the flower, and slowly 
develops into the flower ; but in spiritual understand- 
ing, the flower is perfect previous to the seed. The 
external world will at length become a faithful portrait 
of the thought of the Divine Artist, but in the present 
condition of the world the photograph is unfinished. 
When all divine ideas are perfectly mirrored on earth, 
the millennium will have come, which is the period of 
the finishing of the world-picture, when ideas that have 
always existed in the mind of God shall be perfectly 
reflected in the mind of man and his surroundings. 
When God's idea is perfectly reflected in us, we shall 
be perfectly contented and happy, knowing no further 
care or annoyance. 

Geologists say that the earth is still young; upheavals 
of nature are but signs of imperfection, the means by 
which the earth advances to a more perfect condition ; 
by means of cyclones and earthquakes all that is fitted 
to survive reaches maturity. There is a reciprocal 
action between earth and man. Physical and spiritual 
science really teach the same truth. When all proph- 
ecies are fulfilled in human experience, and spiritual 
illumination gilds the page of Scripture, we learn that 
everything is right noiv, we lose sight of all evil, and 
outgrow everything that occasions sorrow, humiliation, 
or pain. When we feel that a so-called calamity is the 
best thing that can possibly occur, it ceases to be a 
calamity in our eyes. There is in every mind an under- 
current of thought that submission is ignoble ; we 
often think that the world would get on better with- 
out storms, that if something could avert earthquakes 



LECTURE XI. 213 

what a blessing it would be ; but science teaches all 
these convulsions are necessary to the evolution of a 
perfect earth, and harmful only from a superficial point 
of view. When those who suffer outwardly understand 
this, they are sufferers no longer in mind, for they feel 
no anguish of spirit as when they deem themselves 
deserted by divine goodness. The pessimist thinks all 
mysterious events are occasioned by blind force, void 
of intelligence and mercy : this feeling causes much of 
the misery of the world. If our house is burned, and we 
feel it to be an experience we need to pass through, we 
do not really suffer when we recognize a divine purpose 
working through the fire ; for even if it leaves us paupers, 
we feel it was a necessary part of our education, there- 
fore we can maintain a cheerful spirit in spite of poverty. 
If we can realize that everything is really for the best, we 
are able to meet all the difficulties in our way, without 
letting them crush us to the earth ; we cannot in that 
case feel downtrodden and overwhelmed, as though we 
thought ourselves the playthings of blind force. The 
point to be reached is to be entirely unaffected by ex- 
ternal things; gaining this point, we have completed 
our terrestrial journey. However and whenever this 
result is reached, it marks the completion of all earthly 
discipline. 

We can in some instances exhaust all " bad Karma " 
in our present life. Those who can do so are often 
healed or converted to all appearance suddenly. Karma 
is of all our thoughts, words, and deeds the necessary 
effect. We have been making Karma through our whole 
life ; it is the concentrated result of all our actions and 



214 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

thoughts during our entire lifetime. The question often 
arises. Can we change all our conditions in the remaining 
years of our present earthly life ? can we project a force 
now, strong enough to obliterate all past Karma ? If we 
make a very sincere effort, perhaps we can ; but if we 
live on in a careless fashion, we certainly cannot enter 
in the future world upon a state of perfect happiness. 
Remember always that what pertains to an immediate 
future state is not true of the eternal state ; these terms 
are not by any means identical. What we often call 
"forever" is not eternity. Through the operation of 
Karma (sequence), the steady development of individual 
merit, we get rid entirely of the doctrine of everlasting 
punishment, which is founded on a misunderstanding of 
the right application of a Greek adjective which means 
sometimes long-enduring and sometimes eternal ; but 
sulphur, brimstone, and fire are always symbolical of 
purification. 

Churchmen have made a grave mistake in limiting 
probation to one lifetime, and in regarding as eternal 
the period which follows one life and precedes another. 
It is utterly impossible that a just God should make an 
eternity depend on our acts in one temporal life ; but a 
temporary result ever follows a temporary cause. With 
eternity " hell " has nothing to do, only with the life 
which immediately follows the present ; that life we are 
preparing for here and now. Our immediate future cer- 
tainly depends on the use we make of this school ; and 
the duties belonging to this world have to be done here 
or nowhere. A theory that endows this life with such 
importance, making this world a vitally important world, 



LECTURE XI. 215 

inspires us with energy to live well now. We gain tem- 
poral reward for temporal good, and suffer temporal pun- 
ishment for temporal error. Eternal reward for tem- 
poral merit would be unjust. When some beautiful, 
innocent soul enters the spiritual world, bright, pure, 
and happy, it may have nothing to outgrow ; but it may 
have much to learn, nevertheless. We must develop 
spiritually in this world if we would enjoy the spiritual 
state after death. If a talent has not been improved 
here, it will be taken away there ; not finally, indeed, but 
held in abeyance till another embodiment, when we shall 
again have it to use. We cannot be truly happy here or 
elsewhere until we have destroyed all evil Karma, for it 
is that which causes all suffering and distress, and the 
only way to destroy it is to do the special good that 
counteracts the special evil. We can only judge of 
progress by noting our development toward perfect 
charity. When we have conquered some particular vice, 
we have proof of it, for we can then destroy similar vice 
in others. All the good you think builds up your spirit ; 
all bad thoughts have the same effect on the spirit that 
bad air or tainted food has on the body. But still 
another question arises, Have you encouraged enough 
good thought to more than counterbalance the evil? 
Often, alas, we build with one hand and pull down with 
the other. Some lives oscillate continually between 
good and evil, and thus remain stationary. Whenever 
we speak a kind word we step forward ; when we are 
unkind we go backward; but even in going back we 
learn something, for there is progress even through ret- 
rogression. Good lives forever; bad Karma, at worst, 



216 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

endures only for a limited time, as it relates only to time ; 
it makes us suffer, and thus we advance by means of it. 
Karma works as a discipline for our good in every case. 
To understand this takes from us all disposition to repine 
at any grief, care, or misery which we have brought 
upon ourselves. We really suffer only as long as we see 
no reason for what we endure. Whatever befalls us is 
the consequence of what we have been. We are reaping 
our past and creating our future every moment ; as what- 
ever we do, say, or think makes fresh Karma. To study 
Karma is highly practical ; for as we can destroy evil 
Karma by creating good, the creation of good Karma is 
the work of to-day. Let us make the very best of our 
past and its consequences, by converting the failure and 
folly of the past into pure gold for future days. There 
is no arbitrarily allotted time for any result. There is 
work for us all to do ; and when we have done it we 
receive the result of that work independent of the time 
occupied in its performance. 

We must strive to eliminate from our efforts all 
anxiety as to their result, for reward always springs 
from work done, not from anxiety concerning a future. 
If we worry, we are almost certain to turn the scales 
against ourselves. Right must prevail because it is right: 
truth conquers because it is truth. In a tranquil state 
of mind we are able to do what we could not otherwise 
see how to do. All worry disqualifies us for work. If 
we feel our success to be uncertain, we are apt to fail ; 
but when we do not worry, we walk in light ; the light of 
intuition which is for our universal guidance. We are 
all far too prone to pray the prayer of doubt and uncer- 



LECTURE XI. 217 

tainty. Intuition is an infallible guide which we cannot 
follow until the higher principle in us is developed. The 
highest advancement springs from self-forgetfulness. As 
we become indifferent to our lower selves, we rise to care 
for the welfare of the whole human race. While we 
are in our spiritual infancy, we may be cold, haughty, 
and imperious, which proves we have not grown superior 
to the tempter (our own lower self). 

Jesus, as an incarnation of Truth, was the Light of 
the world, and lived in perfect harmony with divine law. 
Both Jesus and Buddha were ripened fruits on the tree 
of life, in contrast to others who were yet green. If we 
are sour and acid now, let us not despair, but remember 
Jesus and Buddha gathered sweetness through earthly 
discipline. We behold in such matchless lives the per- 
fect culmination of the wearisome stages we are now 
passing through. Jesus, " perfected through suffering," 
ascended to his glory, only after having passed through 
the very experiences whose utility we are so prone to 
disallow. The very sufferings we find hardest to bear 
lead most surely to perfection. The most bitter of all his 
experiences was the infidelity of his friends ; the betrayal 
of Jesus by Judas he surely did not deserve, but through 
the alchemy of universal justice that heart-rending trial 
proved the very means by which he was perfected. Only 
in being faithful under trial can we create good Karma.. 
Every time we meet with a trial or annoyance we have 
special opportunity to make good Karma; and it is a 
heavy loss to us if we do not take advantage of it. In 
the sum of our existence (many links, but one chain), 
we receive our full deserts. Impressions are made on 



218 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

our spiritual bodies by everything we have thought, said, 
or done. The law of Karma is a law of perfect compen- 
sation. 

As there are many terms used by Theosophists which 
are unfamiliar to the general reader, we will seek to ex- 
plain a few of them. We understand by Devachan, for 
instance, simply a night between two days, a Sabbath 
between two periods of activity. Devachan is the Bud- 
dhist's paradise, a place of rest, but not of perfect enjoy- 
ment. It is natural that all should look forward to a 
state of perfect happiness eventually, but man's ideal 
state is capable of an entirely better explanation than is 
ordinarily furnished by Theosophy. No one could greatly 
enjoy resting, and never returning to a state of activity. 
The Second Adventists' theory of sleeping in the grave 
is a corruption of the Buddhist idea of Devachan. Nir- 
vana is a state where activity will be perfectly restful, 
and where perfect rest will be active enjoyment. The 
spirit on passing from earth sometimes needs a period of 
repose before it wakes up to active consciousness ; but 
there is no heavenly state which is one of idleness. 
Perpetual motion is the law of existence. Rest does not 
mean idleness, or stagnation, but only a temporary sus- 
pension of our mental activity, as during a vacation or 
holiday. The soul at some time reaches a point where it 
has no longer any occupation connected with earth. In 
Devachan, or " the spirit world," we all remain until we 
are prepared for another term of activity, and during 
our sojourn in that state we grow quietly but surely, as 
physical bodies grow most in sleep. The " spirit world " 
will yield us the fruitage of the life we are now living ; 



LECTURE XI. 219 

we shall reap there as we have sown here ; then we may 
after a while enter upon a new embodiment, but we can- 
not then be at once wise and noble or of very great use 
to the world, if we have hitherto sown evil seed. Con- 
sequences run from one life to another, but eventually 
work themselves out. God does not forgive sin, as 
orthodoxy teaches, but we outgrow past errors. When 
we have outgrown all evil desires we become Karma-less. 
The tree of life is the tree of the knowledge of good 
only. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the 
tree of discipline on which Karma grows, and thereon 
rewards and penalties grow together. 

Everything that comes to us must redound to our final 
good; it cannot possibly be otherwise. If some of us 
had eternally fewer difficulties and trials than others, we 
would have fewer opportunities for progress, and may 
we not ask, " Does God give more opportunities for un- 
foldment to some than to others ? " " Count it all joy 
when ye fall into divers temptations;" it is always some 
lower element in our nature not yet overcome that tempts 
us. The animal soul is our tempter and the only devil there 
is. Only through resisting this tempter can we develop 
strength of character. No one is spiritually great who 
has not made an effort to become great, either in this or 
in some past embodiment. All past experience is stored 
up in the mind, but we are not always aware of it. We 
have far more accumulated experience than we know 
anything of, for we do not express on earth more than 
we now need. Wendell Phillips was naturally a man of 
great capacity, but he never would have greatly distin- 
guished himself had not the great need of the age made 



220 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

its demand upon him. He would in any case have been 
a graceful speaker, but not the great and thrilling orator 
he was in the days when the antislavery conflict was at 
its height, had not that great cause appealed to the 
ability within him. We are not all equally imbued with 
power, because only a few have undergone such disci- 
pline as to have stored within them great latent capacity. 

In our next embodiment we shall not begin where we 
left off in this, but where we ended in the spiritual state 
following this embodiment. If we live impurely now, it 
will leave us in a state of mental exhaustion, so we will 
have but small chance to progress ; we shall have to 
struggle with tremendous odds, but may, nevertheless, 
win a great victory. No condition is hopeless, and no 
child was ever born for punishment. This world is not 
a hell, but simply a school where all have opportunity to 
learn; no fate hangs over any head ordaining failure, 
though some have to struggle very hard to make life a 
success. The doctrine of Karma teaches hope and in- 
spires to effort; it does not encourage reconciliation to 
the inevitable, because nothing in the fatalistic sense is 
inevitable ; we all have opportunity to make good Karma 
now, and thereby secure happiness in our next embodi- 
ment. If one succeeds in developing character here, his 
spirit goes into the spirit world QDevachari) bright and 
beautiful, prepared for bliss in the next embodiment. A 
martyr's crown shines brightest of all in the life beyond. 
For such lives there is compensation whose glory no 
words can portray. 

Our heaven is always what we make it. Whatever is 
our idea of heaven we will realize. Every one receives 



LECTURE XI. 221 

what is the very best for him. We have all conceived 
of something we think of as perfect happiness, bnt some 
of us are capable of enjoying far more than others : it 
would take far more to satisfy one than another ; but if 
we are faithful in this life, we shall attain in the next 
all the happiness we can appreciate. Some we know can 
apprehend beauty in music and art that ordinary people 
cannot detect. Some can drink copious inspiration from 
a landscape ; others cannot appreciate it at all. The dif- 
ference in people is so great that, if we could measure 
the actual amount of their enjoyment, one person when 
thoroughly happy would appear in capacity like a small- 
sized goblet ; another, like a gallon vessel. The Indian 
of the North American prairies has no higher idea of 
the future state than of happy hunting-grounds : his sole 
ambition is to reach that desired goal, which would not, 
with our higher desires, in any way satisfy us ; but the 
Indian would exclaim, " Great Spirit, so good to give 
me all I want " ; he could not enjoy anything higher. 
If one has lived an artistic life, he might imagine a 
beautiful city, with scenery of gorgeous description, 
where treasures of beauty are freely outpoured. All 
can receive happiness in the ideal world they have pic- 
tured to themselves. The man in his study is no happier 
with his books than is the child in the nursery with his 
toys; the child must grow mentally to the stature of a- 
man before he can enjoy a man's books. If we strive 
for the highest growth we can conceive of, we awake 
after " death" to all the glories we can enjoy. There 
can be no absolutely perfect reward except for an abso- 
lutely perfect life. The more advanced the soul, the 



222 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

higher its possibilities of enjoyment. This view of the 
future life will at once strike the reflective reader as in 
perfect accord with u Many mansions in the Father's 
house." 

How can we meet our friends in heaven if they are 
re-embodied? is a question which perplexes many; let 
us try to answer it : There is often a very long period 
between embodiments, — the intervals are referred to in 
the New Testament as ages. " The world coming to an 
end," " a new heaven and a new earth," and similar ex- 
pressions, often refer to lapses between embodiments. 
We need not fear that if our friends are re-embodied 
we shall not meet them in the spirit world. We do not 
realize the dual life we are now living, and this is the 
reason why we cannot realize spiritual communion more 
fully than we usually do. This world is not man's 
native element; we are at times obliged to retire from 
it ; this earth is a workshop, from which we need tem- 
porary retreats; we have to withdraw frequently into 
our natural element to find rest beyond the realm of 
dreams. From unbroken slumbers we awake recreated, 
strong, and full of peace. In the realm of spirit our 
spirit has enjoyed a higher fellowship than we can out- 
wardly realize, but we experience the result in renewal 
of energy for all states of life. When embodied on 
earth, we are like amphibious animals, living between 
two elements. We, in perfect repose, go out of the 
material element into the ocean of spirit, and we could 
not do our work on the dry land if we did not occa- 
sionally rest in the water. We must strive to realize 
each other now, not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 



LECTURE XI. 223 

When we reach a higher state of being, we shall neither 
know nor care what external form our friends may wear, 
since form does not contain spirit. The earthly embodi- 
ment is only a garment, an external projection of spirit : 
the substance must not be confounded with the shadow 
it casts. We (our real selves) always were, and we 
always shall be, in the spirit realm; we must learn to 
know each other in spirit now, if we would know and 
understand what we really are. The soul retains its 
perfect individuality in the spirit world, independent of 
external expression. When people express a desire to 
meet their friends in the life beyond, they often fail to 
realize in what spiritual union really consists. We 
should very soon grow tired of rigid outer personali- 
ties. Nothing external could forever satisfy us. We 
live forever in the life immortal, and true unions per- 
tain to the unchanging state of the soul only. 



As a supplement to this discourse, we append some 
thoughts on the true relations of 

THEOSOPHY AND METAPHYSICAL HEALING. 

Considerable misapprehension has prevailed in some 
quarters on this subject; but metaphysical healing is 
really Theosophy applied to health, metaphysical heal- 
ing being the utilization of the spiritual power in man 
for beneficent ends. It is the desire of adepts to bring 
this truth before the world for the benefit of all man- 
kind. The metaphysical movement has come before the 



224 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

world through the direct action of master-minds, belong- 
ing to the most important orders in the world. The 
principle of metaphysics is the principle of Eastern 
wisdom, and it is only just to Theosophy and the wis- 
dom of the East to make this statement. Mrs. Eddy 
says she obtained it from a study of the Bible. How 
did Dr. Quimby and others receive it ? It matters not. 
These flashes of light which have come to different 
minds have all proceeded from orders that have for 
ages held this truth, which they give to the masses as 
they are able to receive it. Those who receive it intui- 
tively do, in a certain sense, as they claim, receive it 
from God. Metaphysics and Theosophy are perfectly 
at one : mediumship has often been an erratic manifes- 
tation of spiritual power, but in its highest phases it is 
strictly theosophical, though in its lowest it is nothing 
more than " gray magic." No one can be a successful 
healer unless he lives a pure life, in conformity with the 
teachings of the science he professes to hold dear. By 
perfect devotion to spiritual truth and the good of hu- 
manity, all can exercise the power, the use of which 
Jesus taught to his disciples. 

Every true healer is a true Theosophist, for he en- 
deavors to turn the attention of his patients from matter 
to spirit; he insists upon the culture of the spiritual 
nature, and the establishment of noble relations with 
the psychic world, which will enable man to inherit all 
things worth inheriting. Our external forms receive an 
imprint from every thought which enters our minds. 
We believe in the perfect physical regeneration of the 
body through psychical means, and contend that this 



LECTUKE XI. 225 

can only be accomplished through the action of the 
highest thought : when the higher nature is appealed to, 
it drives out what the lower nature has accreted. The 
elixir of life is not a drug, or the blood of an animal, 
but the life that springs from the interior principle, — 
the Logos, the true Ego, the Life of God within us. 
In our highest condition we undertake to heal no one ; 
but as the sun radiates light and heat through the solar 
system, so do we radiate health when we are in health. 
Every soul in eternity can perceive only good, be recep- 
tive to, and express only good. 

The man who has really found his soul sheds blessing 
everywhere ; he can go nowhere without healing the sick : 
wherever he goes he carries a beneficent influence which 
he unconsciously dispenses as freely as the song of a 
bird or the perfume of a flower. We shall never develop 
into such a condition, however, unless we love to do 
good to mankind universally. Let us cultivate our 
higher principle for the sake of the good we can do. All 
power is ours when we are in Divine Understanding. 
Life is a battle, and only they who fight the battle win 
the prize. Spiritual healing is more than mental heal- 
ing. Mind-cure is an inadequate expression. 

Spiritual illumination is necessary for perfect healing. 
A proper metaphysical treatment closes the door upon 
error and opens a door into heaven ; it is often like open- 
ing the window in a room full of foul air so as to let in a 
fresh, cool, sweet breeze, which soon purifies and har- 
monizes the apartment. This is what thought does, 
when we affirm : " I am spirit, one with God ; I am per- 
fectly well in my interior, immortal being." When we 



226 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

thus relate ourselves with the Infinite, we open a window 
nothing can ever close. Sometimes in the minds of the 
afflicted there are windows opening to most disagreeable 
places ; a spiritual treatment shuts that window and opens 
another to a bed of roses, as it were, letting in thoughts 
of peace, and harmonizing all with celestial planes of 
intelligence. Spiritual truth opens the avenues of the 
mind to the knowledge of being ; it conduces to right 
living, to traveling in the right way, to the overcoming 
of all discordant thought; it enables us to enter upon 
our rightful heritage of eternal life and blessedness. 
Every such treatment should be educative ; the healer 
should develop a spiritual atmosphere by benevolent 
thought. Trust in God; rest in Spirit; work without 
anxiety as to results. In giving ourselves up to spiritual 
influx, we are yielding to the Holy Spirit, which is far 
better than relying on our own mentality. When one 
treats with personal will he soon becomes exhausted. 
Treatment coupled with doubt is worse than none at all ; 
when you are agitated and do not leave all to God, you 
are giving wrong mental medicine, — your thought, not 
God's thought. You cannot fail when you are in truth, 
for it is God's will that every one should be well and 
happy. 

Theosophy recognizes seven senses : Spiritual Science 
seeks to develop the sixth and seventh senses, through 
which we come into conscious relation with the astral 
and spiritual worlds. When we study Spiritual Science, 
we study everything there is ; for spiritual knowledge is 
the only solvent of life's mystery. Some Theosophists 
we know take a mistaken view of spiritual healing, 



LECTUKE XI. 227 

owing to a false view of astrology, or planetary influ- 
ences. Now astrology and alchemy are true sciences ; 
they are the spiritual side of astronomy and chemistry. 
Theosophy teaches that we were born when certain influ- 
ences were in the ascendant, because of the Karma we 
brought with us from past experiences : this caused us to 
be conceived and born just when we were. Our " brood- 
ing stars" are due to our Karma; but Karma is to be 
vanquished, it is not to govern us. The perfectly un- 
folded soul is represented astrologically in the twelfth 
chapter of Revelations, as a woman clothed with the sun, 
in contrast to Adam and Eve, who were represented in 
the garden of Eden as naked, signifying ignorant though 
innocent; that is, in a state of moral infancy. Their 
adoption of clothing signified growth in knowledge 
through experience. Eve, though innocent and perfect 
in virgin beauty, wore no crown ; chaste as marble, pure 
as ice, with beauty unsullied, she was still no queen, no 
conqueror. She is the representative of infantile inno- 
cence, but one to whom no one need apply for advice 
or instruction, as she has no knowledge of the world, or 
its trials. While fair and pure, she was only a little 
child who could not serve as teacher, counselor, or guide. 
Now gaze upon the other picture, — a woman standing 
in regal glory, clothed with the sun, the moon beneath 
her feet, a crown of twelve stars upon her head; a 
woman with all the chastity that could be imagined as 
pertaining to the pure Edenic virgin, but chastity com- 
bined with all — commanding knowledge, intelligence 
united to purity, love married to wisdom. Between 
these two, a. great gulf is fixed; but it is the Edenic 



228 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

woman who has developed into the radiant queen of the 
Apocalypse. We may take Eve to represent a suscepti- 
ble person who always " takes on conditions " ; when 
tempted by the serpent (error), she is utterly unpro- 
tected ; but the light that clothes the apocalyptic woman 
is the armor of the Spirit which envelopes her from head 
to foot and paralyzes the serpent. Jesus placed before 
us, as our goal, a glorious condition that is still beyond 
us, the union of the dove's harmlessness with the ser- 
pent's wisdom. 

Now what is the esoteric significance of the apocalyptic 
figure ? The sun corresponds to our spiritual nature, 
the moon to our physical, or animal nature, and the 
twelve stars to our different intellectual powers. Many 
astrologers tell us, " the wise man rules his stars." The 
true Theosophist, in whom divine wisdom is regnant, 
rules his own intellectual powers, compelling them to 
act as servants to the divine soul (atma) as the visible 
sun rules the planets which revolve around it. Our atma 
is the sun in us ; the true ego is, the spiritual sun. The 
moon represents the animal nature, a mere satellite which 
must be subjected to the intellect, while both mind and 
sense must obey the Spirit. This is the true planetary 
correspondence of the powers within ourselves. As 
planets revolve in space, they are continually discharg- 
ing electricity into the atmosphere ; the recent perihelion 
of several has had a great deal to do with the present 
tumult and unrest in human society all over the world ; 
but all these influences being mortal, they afflict only 
those who are on the mortal plane of thought and affec- 
tion. When we cultivate our soul power, when we are 



LECTURE XI. 229 

clad in armor from head to foot, no arrows or bullets 
can pierce our armor. When we live in the Spirit, by 
constant at-one-ment with the interior life, we clothe 
ourselves with the sun, subdue the moon (all carnal pas- 
sions) beneath our feet, and earn a diadem of twelve 
stars, signifying the perfect development of our intellect 
(the twelve stars refer to all zodiacal influences). A 
thoroughly rounded development is a regal crown. As 
we live in the light of spiritual truth we become ever 
more and more invulnerable, no matter what hydra- 
headed monster makes war upon us; our heels, being 
cased in armor, blunt the serpent's fangs, and the spirit- 
ual armor with which we are clothed, not only protects 
us, but radiates an atmosphere which purifies the air for 
every one else to breathe ; it generates a counter-influence 
of good that destroys evil, as light dispels darkness. 
When this is understood, we shall learn how useless it is 
to expect to succeed in spiritual work merely through 
intellectual accomplishments. Verily, the spoken or 
written word of truth carries conviction by the sheer 
force of sound argument to many minds, but much more 
than argument is needed in breaking down the strong- 
hold of error and letting in the light of truth. 

N.B. — In compiling the foregoing essay, the writer 
has been to some extent indebted to " Short Lessons- 
in Theosophy," compiled by S. C. Clark, a valuable 
little handbook in question and answer form, 59 pages, 
leatherette, price 25 cents, for sale by Colby & Rich. 



LECTURE XII. 

THE MYSTERY OF THE AGES. — THE SECRET DOCTRINE 
CONTAINED IN ALL RELIGIONS. 

Is the world ready to receive esoteric truth ? is a con- 
stantly recurring question. All must admit that every 
one is not prepared for theosophical teaching in its most 
intricate form, though every one is ready for something. 
Jesus condensed in his parables all the wisdom of the 
ancients ; they were both sublime and simple. The mental 
veil is soon rent in those who give themselves wholly to 
truth, but it conceals the inner meaning of truth from the 
world at large. The spiritual mysteries of all religions 
are now being revealed, although the materiality of the 
present day tends to dwarf the minds of all who do not 
enter fully into the consciousness of spiritual being. 
When man really knows himself, he knows God. He 
who cannot find divinity in himself has only developed 
his fourth principle (animal soul), life being to him only 
a round of eating, drinking, and similar indulgences. 
We see many people who are animated bodies, but little 
more ; they have occasionally better moments, but their 
souls have not yet shone through their organisms to any 
extent. Then there are others who have no conscious- 
ness of spiritual existence, yet are often actuated by a 
pure benevolence that puts to shame professional sane- 



LECTURE XII. 231 

tity. Many feel a spiritual impulse they are unable to 
express through their lower nature. Many people are 
not yet prepared for profound occult study or theosophi- 
cal investigation, which really comprises religion, phi- 
losophy, and science. 

Theosophy in its profounder aspect is not intended for 
children, but for men and women in understanding, who 
are the only people qualified to deal with the great 
problems which it presents to the world, — problems 
which call for the most earnest and persistent study. 
We should not give that which is holy to dogs ; we 
should never force advanced ideas upon unprepared 
minds, but be ever ready to impart instruction to those 
who seek it. Whatever we learn truly we never un- 
learn ; all teaching is progressive. We must impart eso- 
teric truth to the public by degrees, but always teach chil- 
dren in accordance with foundation principles. Teaching 
must be pure in order to be good. Give milk and water 
where people are not ready for stronger food, but never 
prevaricate when you withhold, nor adulterate w^hen you 
omit. The needs of human nature are very varied; each 
mind requires a phase of truth adapted to its particular 
understanding. A Theosophist should in the righteous 
sense be " all tilings to all men " to save all. Conduct 
the student, as in music, through scales and exercises to 
the works of the great masters. If we apply divine wis- 
dom, as it was applied on the day of Pentecost, when the 
disciples spake in divers tongues, we shall divide the 
Word of Truth so as to minister to the edification of all 
who hear it. If we exercise in this age the genuine 
gift of tongues, we shall preach only one gospel as we 



232 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

teach only one arithmetic and one chemistry, but we 
impart different degrees of instruction in these sciences 
as pupils are prepared to receive them : the one law 
and the one gospel can be adapted to all. Mam^ 
complain of the unintelligibility of a great amount of 
theosophical literature, — the language is so mystical, 
the thought so involved, the ideas and forms of ex- 
pression are both so unusual that the average reader 
cannot understand it, they say ; but if all things diffi- 
cult at first were laid aside, pupils might never learn 
anything new. 

The study of Theosophy is like the study of a new 
science of which the multitude know nothing; an art 
with which the crowd is unfamiliar. We confront new 
expressions of old thoughts when learning a new lan- 
guage. Theosophical ideas, even though exceedingly 
ancient, are new to the world of to-day. The nomen- 
clature often seems new and startling, but is soon inter- 
preted. Kama loca is only a Sanskrit equivalent for 
purgatory ; Devachan signifies the spirit world, or para- 
dise ; Nirvana means heaven ; Buddha is no more mysti- 
cal a name than Christ. There is nothing true or useful 
in Buddhism that there is not also in Christianity. The 
value of Theosophy is that it demonstrates the absolute 
unity of all divine philosophy. The general tendency 
of modern secular thought is toward the rise of the in- 
dividual, that of Theosophy toward the welfare of the 
race, through forgetfulness of self; it admonishes us to 
kill out all sense of separateness, which means divided or 
opposing interests. We must feel that we are all living 
one true life, and that is the life of the race, the only life 



LECTURE XII. 233 

with which we should be concerned. Self-forgetfulness 
is not antithetical to self-preservation ; but human laws 
must give place to Divine Law; all good earthly laws 
are included in the one universal Law of Spirit, and that 
is stated in the formula usually styled the Golden Rule 
and in the method of the Pater Noster. 

There is a rapidly growing desire on the part of all 
mankind for higher spiritual revelation. Surely none 
can be so blind as not to see the great and ever-increasing 
interest which now prevails in all that relates to occultism, 
which means secret philosophy or science. Theosophy 
means divine wisdom, but do we not have to search for 
divine wisdom as for hidden treasure ? Without spiritual 
wisdom we cannot possibly understand life present, past, 
or future. Theosophy alone unlocks the mysteries of 
Being. It does not deal with the individual as separate 
from mankind, but only with man collectively, since the 
Eternal Being is Father and Mother of us all. All 
demonstrations of truth to an individual must depend 
on the mental caliber of that individual and the effort he 
makes to solve life's problem. Sciences are but various 
manifestations of one true science; there are various 
departments of knowledge, but knowledge itself is a 
unit. All religious systems are endeavors on the part of 
humanity to express its highest ideas, though often but 
feebly in sign and symbol. Theosophy exerts a uniting, 
never a separating, influence on those who study it ; its 
adherents become friends when previously strangers. 
Theosophy does not seek to overturn any creed, but, on 
the contrary, without deifying any form of religion, 
symbol, or. book, it interprets all symbols, creeds, and 



234 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

books esoterically instead of exoterically, as it recognizes 
that while the letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. Every 
true Theosophist is a universal religionist. 

Our faculties, whatever they may be, are capable of 
stimulation in every direction. We must know that we 
have a special endowment to begin with, but that we 
are born gifted does not imply that we should not dili- 
gently cultivate our gift. It is possible to put our 
talents out at interest so as to make one talent two, then 
two will increase to four, and ten will become twenty as 
easily as one became two. Unto those who have, more 
shall be given continually. Spiritual growth is valuable 
here and now as well as in the state beyond the grave. 
It is not necessary that we all should isolate ourselves 
from our kindred to develop our spiritual gifts, but we 
must realize ourselves as living now a spiritual life in 
the spiritual universe ; we must speak and think now as 
we would wish to in the supernal state. Theosophy 
claims that we can cultivate and exercise now and here 
all the powers of the spirit. Spiritual development is 
within the reach of all, as spiritual endowments are 
already in our possession. We can all enjoy spiritual 
illumination and vigor of intellect if we live harmoni- 
ously with divine law. Practice alone makes perfect; 
we can all develop spiritual muscle and cultivate the 
latent spiritual power within us. Man can use his sixth 
sense, and so accustom himself to employ it as to find it 
a reliable guide at all times. We are not so diverse as 
we suppose , we often think mistakenly that if we were 
constituted like some other people we could shine brighter 
than they shine; but Theosophy teaches that genius is 



LECTURE XII. 235 

after all applied energy, a determination to take posses- 
sion of our own. We all possess the power within us 
that characterized the most renowned people who ever 
walked the globe. We need not ask, "Have I this or 
that gift?" for when a gift is appealed to, it responds, 
and can be used as a means of further development or 
higher culture. All persons really possess the gifts they 
wish for ; what you do not possess you could not care for. 
Love of anything is due to a power within struggling 
for expression, which says : " I have chosen you " (not, 
" you have chosen me ") ; " I am in you already and 
want to be used." Our spiritual powers are continually 
asking to be exercised. This is the real condition in 
the spirit of every man. As we increase in knowledge 
of the law of Karma, or sequence, we shall be able to 
explain quite satisfactorily in every instance why human 
demands and affections are outwardly as diverse as they 
are. These explanations we must give a little later in 
our work, after we have led up to them by taking a 
hurried glance at Theosophy in general. 

In the chapters devoted to Hindu and Persian The- 
osophy (vide Lectures IX. and X.) we have sought to 
familiarize the reader with the general scheme of 
Oriental thought and doctrine ; we are now about 
to enter upon the doctrinal and practical, rather than 
to continue the historical portion of our work. As book, 
reviews are, we know, expected, and greatly appreciated 
by many readers who have little time for reading but 
are desirous of acquainting themselves with as many 
good books as possible in a short time, we shall now 
introduce — 



236 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

" The Mystery of the Ages contained in the Secret Doc- 
trine of All Religions." Under this heading Lady Caith- 
ness, Duchesse de Pomar, one of the brightest minds in 
Europe engaged in theosophical propaganda, has issued 
from the press of C. L. H. Wallace, Oxford Mansion, 
London, W. (price 10s. 6c?.), 1 one of the finest and most 
comprehensive works we have been privileged to peruse. 
It is a complete digest of universal Theosophy, treating 
all schools of thought and branches of this vast subject 
with remarkable fairness and ability, in a manner to attract 
all and repel no honest enquirer. In a copious preface, 
excellently worded, the talented authoress and compiler, 
who has drawn from almost every conceivable source im- 
portant material for her work, calls attention, with great 
power and ability, to the identity of all religions at their 
root. There may be many branches and countless leaves, 
but only one root, as all intelligences are nourished from 
one eternal fountain of life, all warmed by the same great 
central fire of being. All prayers are cries of God's chil- 
dren seeking their Parent, — cries which are never disre- 
garded, even though it often seems amid the mass of 
worldliness and error in which so many are seemingly en- 
gulfed that the originally pure aspirational element, which 
is the vital germ of religion, had been crushed to death. 
Overlaid with error it may be, as frescoes in ancient 
churches have been covered for centuries with white- 
wash, which, though it has hidden, has preserved them ; 
for at a time of restoration they reappear, fresh as on the 
day when some great artist, long since departed, placed 
them there. 

1 For sale by Colby & Rich, Boston. 



LECTURE XII. 237 

Truth alone is immortal ; its absolute imperishability 
was never more clearly demonstrated than now, when 
from every quarter new forms of truth are springing up, 
but all animated with the old vitalizing breath of spirit- 
ual revelation. None of our readers who have carefully 
followed us in our hasty scamper over ancient fields of 
thought and modern inspiration, will be unready to wel- 
come all that Lady Caithness has- to say to them. Her 
work, though very popular, and enjoying a very wide 
circulation, is scarcely for beginners in the study, unless 
they are persons whose previous training has led them 
up to desire arcane knowledge, such as she serves to 
them in a manner which at once bespeaks the profundity 
of the savant and the grace of the accomplished society 
leader. Among the many who are giving time and 
energy to a dissemination of spiritual truth, no one per- 
haps is working more efficiently than this truly noble 
woman, who, while wearing her ducal coronet with all 
the imperial grace of a noble dame of the ancien regime, 
mingling freely in high society where she is an acknowl- 
edged leader, uses her influence to carry into the gilded 
halls of wealth and splendor a truth which is surely des- 
tined to bring all stations of life into sweet and gracious 
union, whereas now, unhappily, ill-feeling often prevails 
among those which conventionalism divides into upper 
and lower classes. Jesus taught all with whom he came 
in contact to be faithful in the sphere of action where 
their special mission lay ; and do we not, when we see 
clearly, behold more real excellence and usefulness among 
those who adorn the state to which they are born, than 
among such as go out of their way to carve out for them- 



238 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

selves a channel of supposed greater usefulness, where 
often they are unable to do anything at all ? 

Some people, envious no doubt of the wealth of others, 
would object to any man or woman who teaches Theoso- 
phy, or anything of the kind, living other than as a peas- 
ant; but so we have not learned the Christ (Truth). 
In all spheres of life great good may be accomplished by 
those who are in those spheres exerting themselves, as 
far as in them lies, to do the good which lies nearest to 
their hand. Jesus said to a very wealthy young man 
who sought perfection, " Go, sell all thou hast and give 
to the poor, and come follow me, and thou shalt have 
treasure in heaven." He said also to another who would 
be his disciple, but wished to linger to conduct a funeral, 
" Let the dead bury their dead, but follow thou me." In 
another place, however, he checked the ardor of an im- 
petuous missionary who would leave his home and kin- 
dred to itinerate through Galilee : " Go home." Carping 
critics might find in these opposite passages marks of 
discordance in the Gospel teachings ; but carping people 
are always short-sighted and shallow, and quite incapable 
of looking at any subject from more than one (and that 
their own) point of view. The broad-minded student 
of sacred history will soon learn that all truly great 
teachers were extremely versatile in their thought and 
doctrine. Though they never contradicted themselves, 
they were deep-seeing enough to recommend each one 
who applied to them for advice to do the particular work 
he could best accomplish in his own place and in his own 
way ; and as the missions of different people differ widely, 
advice suitable to one would be quite misleading for an- 



LECTURE XII. 239 

other. One criterion, however, we have at all times, and 
that is, be sincere, be strictly honest with yourself, never 
toy with conviction ; and to this we add, never judge or 
condemn another who does not act as you would, or 
rather, as you think you would were you in his place. 

Nothing illustrates the old adage, " It takes all sorts 
of people to make a world," more than Theosophy. 
All sorts and conditions of men, women, and children 
are necessary to the completeness of the human family 
and the performance of life's multiple duties. This 
fact Lady Caithness elaborately illustrates in her charm- 
ing theosophical mosaic, for which she has culled from 
all the spiritual and mystical flower-gardens of the 
world their choicest blossoms. At one time we are 
introduced to a poor, half-naked fakir, seeking to attain 
supreme blessedness through a life of complete renun- 
ciation of all external joys. Almost on the same page 
we read of the spiritual attainments of some who have 
adorned the highest stations in Church and State. The 
true catholicity and marked absence of prejudice in the 
work of Lady Caithness constitute its great charm. 
In one sense it is not a consecutive narrative, as it 
presents a series of dissolving views, so to speak, of 
great characters, memorable events, and noble systems. 
The information it gives is very exact, and supported 
by innumerable references to writers of high standing, . 
and in this respect it renders a very valuable service 
to the student by w r hetting his appetite for more knowl- 
edge, and then informing him just where he can find it. 
In her copious and beautifully written preface, the 
gifted authoress launches upon her subject at once, and 



240 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

throws down the gauntlet, without delay, for material- 
ism and dogmatic theology to pick up, if they will. 
Shfe makes few, if any, unsupported statements, and 
ventures but very few personal opinions. She says in 
effect, Here are facts ; deal with them as you can. Con- 
servatism and radicalism are united throughout the 
volume ; and is it not the province of Theosophy to 
conserve truth and destroy error ? — a task which can 
never be fulfilled by either the diffident servant of 
popular tradition, or the ruthless iconoclast who sees no 
good in any system in which he finds some error. 

The book opens with an allusion to the famous story 
of Hiero of Syracuse, who proposed to Simonides the 
question, What is God? He replied after long and 
earnest study, " The longer I consider this question, the 
more obscure it seems to me." Cicero endorsed the 
statement of Simonides, and through all classic litera- 
ture it appears that even the very greatest minds, who 
sought for knowledge of divine truth by means of in- 
tellect alone, were baffled in their search. All persons 
who have been reared in the Christian faith, and do 
not wish to surrender it, will find in " The Mystery of 
the Ages " a strong vindication of the esoteric claim, 
though the same book deals quite mercilessly with 
fabulous and injurious dogmas, which have arisen 
from time to time in days of general ignorance and 
oppression. 

The book proper is divided into twelve very long 
chapters, each of which will prove well worthy of read- 
ing carefully at least a dozen times. Milk is the excep- 
tion, strong meat the rule, though the most intricate 



lecture xn. 241 

and unusual topics are dealt with with surprising clear- 
ness, in vigorous classic English. The first chapter, 
which is "introductory," commences with the state- 
ment that a study of Theo-Sophia (Divine Wisdom) 
"alone enables man to feel that divine love which is 
the supreme good, and the manifestation of the Eternal 
in his own being." In the second chapter, which is on 
" The Theory and Practice of Theosophy," a long list 
of valuable books for reference is given, at the head 
of which stands " Hermes Trismegistus," translated by 
Professor Wilder. This work, and many others recom- 
mended, are for advanced studies, and should be read 
after " The Mystery of the Ages," to which it is a con- 
cise introduction. Extracts are also given from " The 
Perfect Way," by Anna Kingsford, which can be ob- 
tained for $2.00 from any bookseller, and will well 
repay re-perusal, though some of its statements are 
severely contested by many Spiritualists, who think it 
does not teach truly concerning the post-mortem exist- 
ence of the soul. This chapter ends with the most 
true definition of universal religion — which Theosophy 
is, or it is nothing. " Our Temple is a Pantheon, 
admitting all Divine Ideas and excluding only the 
demoniac ; but before a God-Idea is admitted it should 
be mathematically examined as to whether it is truly 
Divine." When this rule is strictly applied, all ideas of 
a Supreme Being will be rigidly excluded, save that 
glorious monotheistic conception, which is the very 
essence of the Theosophy of all climes and ages ; an 
idea gaining an ever-extending hold upon advanced 
minds everywhere, that one Infinite Spirit lives in all 



242 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

universes and is the life of all. Thus, in a last analysis 
of all things, we arrive at spiritual (not material) pan- 
theism, and, exclaiming, "All is Spirit," we agree that 
God (Infinite Good Intelligence) is all in all. 

Chapter III. commences with a treatise on " The Secret 
of Mythology," and most ably argues down the gross 
materialism of many would-be savans, who can see 
nothing but literal astronomy clad in fanciful disguise 
in the sublime mysticism of the Hermetists of old, who 
taught spiritual science while teaching at the same time 
much of importance concerning the physical aspects of 
nature. The science of Correspondence, familiar to all 
students of Swedenborg, opens up a wide field for dili- 
gent research; and though some Swedenborgians cling 
too closely to the letter of Swedenborg's writings, the 
" New Jerusalem Church " is doing far more than any 
other body of Christians at the present time to " open up 
the interior sense of the Word." But what is God's 
Word? Is it a book or is it Man? Human nature is 
surely God's inspired volume, in a much deeper sense 
than the best literature can be ; for, were not men in- 
spired rather than parchment scrolls in the days of old ? 
and does not the Bible itself inform us that in the bright- 
est days of Israel's history there were living prophets, 
oracles, and voices ? and that only in a degenerate age, 
when the celestial voice was not so plainly heard, did 
men feel obliged to turn to the written law and testa- 
ment? And what, we may ask, is a testament but a 
legacy, — a something bequeathed, left behind by one 
who can no longer come in and out among us ? Scrip- 
tures are, no doubt, all susceptible of an interior inter- 



LECTURE XII. 243 

pretation, as, instead of being written by ignorant men, 
they were the work of the exceptionally enlightened; 
and though in their present translated forms they con- 
tain many blunders, and were not at the start in the 
original necessarily infallible, no unprejudiced scholar 
can doubt for an instant that they were wise works of 
wise men, written in a double manner, intended to pre- 
serve literal history in a substantially correct outward 
guise, and to preserve for all coming generations the 
spiritual wisdom in possession of the writers. The letter 
is often sacrificed considerably for the sake of the spirit ; 
but the spirit is never sacrificed to accommodate the 
letter. Thus, literally, bibles are no sure guides in 
matters of history, though they are repositories of the 
deepest truth the world has become acquainted with. 
These remarks apply equally to many bibles, and it would 
be well for Swedenborgians to remember their leader's 
words concerning the word of the Lord hidden in Great 
Tartary, if they ever feel disposed to unduly exalt one 
canon and repudiate all others. 

Chapter IV. continues a discussion of Hermetic Theos- 
ophy in a very able comparison of Egyptian and Chris- 
tian Gnosticism. From this exceedingly valuable and 
scholarly chapter we make the following brief extract, 
regretting our limited space peremptorily forbids more : — 

Christianity, the outcome of a Neo-Hermetic Gnosticism and 
opposed to the sensualistic cult that for ages disfigured the ancient 
religious systems, had in the first centuries of its establishment a 
hard struggle for existence. " Gnosis," individual experience, knowl- 
edge of God, was the Center, the great Arcanum, and the Mystic 
Christ. The sanctuary of Christianity is Theosophy. Christianity 



244 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

would have perished as the ephemeral teachings of the so-called 
false Messiahs of the Jews, had it not been that it was established 
by those ignorantly deplored and abused Gnostic Heresies. Gnosis, 
the sanctuary of Christianity, being attained to by some earnest, 
striving souls, life and reality was given to the new system by 
their enthusiasm. 

Chapter V. introduces us to the Theosophy of the 
Brahmans, Magi, and Druids. Chapter VI. treats on 
Buddhist Theosophy. Both these chapters are exceed- 
ingly interesting and very important ; but we have touched 
sufficiently, perhaps, on these topics in the lectures or 
essays devoted specially to their elucidation, so we will 
not say more about them here, but pass on to Chapter 
VII., entitled "Pagan Theosophy." In the treatment 
of this thoroughly classic theme, Lady Caithness intro- 
duces powerful arguments to show how its exclusiveness 
was demolished by two Jews (Jesus and Paul), who by 
preaching the Gospel to the multitude broke up the 
aristocratic hierarchies which flourished in the Roman 
Empire in their day. Concerning the Eleusinian and 
Bacchic Mysteries we have spoken in another place, but 
will here introduce a fine passage concerning the phi- 
losophers : " Nearly all ancient philosophers were not 
only Initiates, but also Esoterists, teaching Theosophy 
under the veil of allegory. They were all spiritual 
teachers, and their Philosophy was Theosophy. Material 
terms were only used as symbols for spiritual things." 
If this fact were only realized in modern universities, 
where Greek verse is parsed and translated without the 
student being led to imagine there is anything of merit 
in it beyond the rhythm, how living collegiate studies 



LECTUKE XII. 245 

would become where now they are dead and lifeless as 
inanimate marble. Orphens, Hesiod, Xenophanes, Em- 
pedocles, and many other famous bards of ancient Greece 
have sung pure spiritual truth in lines now usually re- 
garded as devoid of any valuable meaning. Let Theos- 
ophy awaken the thoughts of the multitude, and Ezekiel's 
vision of dry bones mil be realized in our universities. 

The eighth chapter, on " Semitic Theosophy," contrib- 
utes a great deal of valuable information on the Kabbala. 
The Hebrew religion is very appreciatively dealt with, 
and truthful reasons for Levitical ceremonies assigned. 
It is doubtful whether the Jews, as a people, ever under- 
stood the spirit of their religion to any great extent ; but 
the Sages undoubtedly understood something very dif- 
ferent from the vulgar conception of the populace. The 
most fantastic ceremonies, when traced to their origin, 
are all found to be reasonable, and calculated to benefit 
the place and time, where and when they were insti- 
tuted. Much information is given concerning the Naz- 
arites, who were prophets, and as such unpopular with 
the priests, who were ever apt to despise prophesyings ; 
prophets being living mouth-pieces of a continuous reve- 
lation, while priests are jealous custodians of the manna 
which fell the day before. 

Chapter IX. treats of u The Sufis and Mohammedan 
Theosophy." In analyzing the character of the founder 
of the religion of Islam, the authoress is very ready 
to credit him with many solid excellencies, though she 
does not claim him to have been anything like a perfect 
character. The very word Islam means resignation, or 
entire submission to the will of God. In its theoretical 



246 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

part it is called Imdn, Faith ; in its practice, Sin, Religion 
(or Wisdom), which contains the ritual and moral laws, 
inculcating four chief duties, — prayer, almsgiving, fast- 
ing, and pilgrimage. The belief in angels forms a prom- 
inent dogma ; they are created of fire, and stand between 
God and man, — adoring and serving the one, interceding 
for and guarding the other. Besides angels there are 
good and evil genii. The poor will enter Paradise five 
hundred years before the rich ; there are about a hun- 
dred degrees of the various felicities which await the 
pious, and those who go to heaven find exceedingly sen- 
sual delights prepared for them. There are, however, 
higher degrees of recompense of a purely spiritual kind, 
for those who are of a higher and more spiritual nature, 
and who on earth have lived the inner life of the spirit 
rather than the outward life of the senses. Some curious 
historical facts are quoted to prove Mo-Ahmed "the 
10th Avatar or Theosophic Messenger from the Logos, 
or Divine Wisdom." The grand Mosque at Constanti- 
nople significantly named "Santa Sophia," which is 
divided into four stages, is remarked upon as setting 
forth four stages through which the initiate passes dur- 
ing his probation, till he reaches the divine arcanum. 
Before concluding this section Persian Theosophy is 
interestingly alluded to. 

Chapter X., on " Christian Theosophy," is very fine ; 
and had we not written so much on that score ourselves 
we should be tempted to quote largely from Lady Caith- 
ness, who deals with it with a master-hand. We will 
just give a few extracts which convey the entire pith 
and marrow of the difference between Esoteric and Exo- 



LECTURE XII. 247 

teric Christianity, which is hourly becoming more ap- 
parent. "'The Son of God died for my sins,' is far 
more pleasing to an ordinary mind than the truth that 
he must die to his sins in order to become a true Son of 
God. Jesus, imparting the true Gnosis, or knowledge, to 
those who for generations had been deluded by sacrificial 
perversions of religion, was with necessary emphasis 
regarded by his disciples as the Divine Light becoming 
manifested to those who sat in darkness." " Theosophi- 
cally, then, the Gospels are the histories of an inward 
and regenerating principle, called the only begotten Son 
of God, which is the Saviour of humanity ; for it redeems 
man from the prison house of earth ; and the develop- 
ment in him of this principle transforms the Son of Man 
into the Son of God. Call it the Spirit of Truth, or call 
it Love, or Life ; or call it Wisdom, the Logos, or the 
sixth Principle in man, as do the Buddhists ; or the Key- 
stone of the Arch, as do the Royal Arch-Masons ; or the 
Head-stone of the Corner, as do the Scriptures in certain 
places : it is always the highest state to which man can 
attain. It is, in fact, ' to put on Christ.' ' Read in this 
connection Matt, xvi., which gives an account of Jesus 
saying to Peter that he will build his church on a rock, 
and we shall the better understand the esoteric founda- 
tion of the spiritual (not the outward) catholic church." 
To the Gospel-writers Christ was the invisible Holy One 
of Israel, seen through the veil of the Old Testament ; 
not merely the Spirit of the Old Testament, but Life 
itself that was before Abraham, or, as Christ calls it, the 
Spirit of Truth that should guide us into all truth. This 
was the secret of those earlier Theosophists, the Essenes, 



248 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

and was regarded as a great mystery, called the c Mys- 
tery of Christ,' because it is certainly not of a nature to 
be communicated by any external process, for it must be 
felt and lived before it can be spiritually understood." 
" Jesus of Nazareth was a soul in its last earthly embodi- 
ment whose life was a model ; a pattern life, of match- 
less purity and devotion to duty. Had he been more 
than perfect man, he would have been too exalted to be 
an example to humanity. We utterly fail to see how or 
why, with any show of consistency, those who believe in 
the successive embodiments of the human spirit until it 
reaches perfection, can dispute the fact of an occasional 
case in point occurring as an illustration of the fact that 
the human spirit in its final embodiment on earth, mani- 
fests the perfect character, to ensure which, all preceding 
embodiments have been a necessity." "The Christ is 
indeed the central or spiritual Sun of human life ; the 
source of its better inspiration, and the genius of its 
supreme evolution and final ascension." 

Chapter XI., on " The Theosophic Interpretation of 
the Bible," commences, " all that is true is Spiritual ; 
no chapter in the Bible bears (only) a physical mean- 
ing. For Matter as it now exists shall cease, and all 
that is of it, but the Word of the Lord shall endure 
forever. And how shall it endure except it be purely 
Spiritual ; since, when Matter ceases, it would then be 
no longer comprehensible ? " Then follow extracts 
from " The Perfect Way," which we hope many of our 
readers will procure and study, though it is not a book 
for beginners by any means, and we conceive much harm 
to be often ignorantly done by commencing with ad- 



LECTURE XII. 249 

vanced treatises instead of elementary text-books. Our 
aim is to introduce excerpts from advanced works, rather 
to show the simplicity of the spirit than to exhibit the 
complexity of the literal form of Theosophy. " The 
Science of Correspondences Elucidated," 1 by Edward 
Madeley, is a large and very helpful work for those who 
can glean knowledge when presented in a form accepta- 
ble to Swedenborgians. It certainly is a treasure-house 
of wisdom for many Sunday-school and Bible-class teach- 
ers who cannot feed their classes with literal husks and 
consider they have done their duty, and who would be 
the last people in the world to throw the Bible over- 
board and substitute simply ethical treatises by modern 
authors. Lady Caithness' words on this subject are 
numerous and deep ; they are of a character to greatly 
interest scholars, and at the same time are sufficiently 
simple to be useful to every thoughtful and fairly 
instructed reader. Her quotations from the Fathers of 
the Church, Augustine, Origen, and others, are exceed- 
ingly apposite ; but it is not necessary to study the 
patristic writings to gain a spiritual insight into the 
meaning of inspired documents. Every one may be his 
own priest and key, if he but faithfully seek illumina- 
tion by aspiring ever toward the highest and abstaining 
in thought, as well as in word and deed, from all car- 
nality. 

The concluding chapter, the twelfth, commences as 
follows : " The knowledge or revelation of God comes 
to the world in cycles or waves"; and ends with the fol- 

1 Published by E. Claxton & Co., 930 Market Street, Philadelphia. 
Price $1.50. 



250 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

lowing quotation, " When, after an earthly pilgrimage 
of many centuries, the wandering Jew prototype of unbe- 
lieving man shall return at length to Jerusalem (state 
of peace), he will find himself in the midst of a great 
multitude assembled from every quarter of the world, 
and gathered around an altar on Mount Moriah (height 
where truth is manifested). He will look at the offici- 
ating priest, and his eyes will overflow with tears as he 
will exclaim : ' 'Tis He ! ' and fall down at His feet. He 
will regard the holy offering which the pontiff raises 
above the heads of the crowd, and with a deep-drawn 
sigh, he will again exclaim, ; 'Tis He!' and will wor- 
ship Him the second time. He will look around on the 
multitude as far as his eyes can reach, and recognize 
Him in each one of his brother-men, and will cry with 
a sob, ' ' Tis He again ! He is present in all ! ' Tis He 
everywhere! 'Tis always He! 9 and he will sink down 
in the deepest adoration. At length he will look into 
the depths of his own being, and then his heart will 
melt with love and gratitude, for he will at last discover 
Him in his own heart. His selfhood will have become 
transmuted into that of the Christ, and the work of 
regeneration will be finished." 

Thus ends, with an exquisite extract couched in the 
most fervent prose poetry, " The Mystery of the Ages," 
by the Duchesse de Pomar, a work almost without a 
peer in modern literature, written by a woman whose 
presence in the world is a perpetual benediction, and in 
whose own graceful and actively useful life, Theosophy 
finds one of its truest exponents. 

Deeming the following extracts from an article en- 



LECTUKE XII. 251 

titled, " The Test of Theosophic Interest," published 
in The Path of January, 1889, of more than ordinary 
interest and instructiveness, we give them to our readers 
as a sequel to this chapter : — 

The test of Theosophic interest is precisely the test of every 
other kind of interest, — What one will do to promote it. And 
here, obviously, two considerations arise. 

The first is, that no act which is superficial, or perfunctory, or 
for personal benefit, can at all gauge devotion to a cause which is 
both impersonal and deep-reaching. It is easy to descant on the 
glory of a system so elevated as the Wisdom-Religion. It is as 
easy to proclaim one's own appreciation of its tenets. It is not 
difficult to attend punctiliously the meetings of a Theosophical 
Society, and to absorb with readiness, perhaps with profit, whatever 
of truth may be there disclosed. It may not be easy, but it is 
entirely possible, to read every theosophical work of repute, to 
extract its main thought, and to digest well the learning acquired. 
And yet, very evidently, the first two are exercises only of the 
voice, the last two only of the mind. If Theosophy was a matter 
of the breath or the brains, this participation in it would not only 
be salutary, but ample. 

In truth, however, Theosophy gives but a light benediction to 
either the mere talker or the mere student. It by no means under- 
values sincere homage or zealous inquiry, but it is so intent on the 
work of transferring interest from the lower to the higher levels 
of being, so eager to excite the unselfish enthusiasm for others' 
good, which, subordinating its own advancement, shall be most 
thrilled at the chance to advance Humanity, that its ideal is the 
man who is exerting himself to help others, rather than the man 
who is exerting himself to get ahead. . . . 

Of the three objects contemplated in the establishment of the 
Theosophical Society, the first and greatest is the promotion of 
Universal Brotherhood. But this does not mean merely a senti- 
mental recognition of a general human fraternity; it means an 
active beneficence toward the rest of the family. And if correct 



252 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

views, loftier ideals, richer motives, finer principles, healthier aspi- 
rations are more attainable through the theosophic system than 
through other systems of faith or morals, the Theosophist is best 
serving the interests of his brother-men by giving that system all 
the publicity he can. . . . 

The second consideration referred to at the outset is that the 
test of theosophic interest is not the absolute amount of help 
given, but that amount as related to the capacity of the giver. 
Five cents, five hours, constitute a far larger proportion of one 
man's available means or time, than five thousand dollars or five 
months do of another's. Hence it is not the figures, but their 
fractional value, which determines the extent of the interest. Just 
so is it in every other human interest. How much one cares for a 
relation, for a friend, for a philanthropic cause, for a public object, 
is unerringly shown by the proportion of outlay he devotes thereto. 
And this does not mean a careless profusion with superfluous 
goods, but the cutting-off of personal indulgences, cherished but 
dispensable, for the better sustentation of a cause, — in other 
word, self-sacrifice. Nor does self-sacrifice mean the sacrifice of 
other people, as some think ; the bearing with great fortitude pri- 
vations one does not share, the consecration of money or time or 
effort which really belongs to one's family or entourage. It means 
the sacrifice of yourself, of your own habits and enjoyments and ex- 
penses, in order to build up a cause you profess to love. And the 
extent to which this is done gauges the proportion of your love for 
that cause to your love for yourself. 

Now Theosophy is not unreasonable or captious. It does not 
advise any man to starve himself, or to wear rags, or to scout at 
the conditions of life in the civilization wherein he was born and 
which express the laws of sociology. It does not enjoin monasti- 
cism or seclusion, or parsimony, or want of public spirit, or abne- 
gation of social amenities, or one-sidedness, or bigotry, or folly 
under any name. We are to be men, rational men, civilized men, 
cultivated men ; and we promote no noble cause, least of all the 
noblest, if we are unsocial, unpractical, or fantastic. But while 
all this is true, it is equally true that in one's own private affairs, 
in that sphere of personal belongings outside the claims of others, 



LECTURE XII. 253 

and wherein absolute freedom is unquestioned, the test of theo- 
sophic interest is directly applicable. It is, as has been shown, the 
proportion of time, money, literary or other effort one is willing 
to give up. . . . 

What is there for me to do? Everything that you can do. 
A word, a hint, a tract, a volume, a subscription. If it costs you 
nothing, your interest is nothing. If it costs you little, your inter- 
est is little. If it costs you till you feel it, then it is that you feel 
your interest. And when you yourself, body, soul, and spirit, are 
devoted to the doing, when you thrill with that topic as with no 
other topic, when your pleasure is in self-sacrificing efforts for its 
promotion, when you forget yourself, have lost yourself, in it, then 
will you have become in measure what are the Founders, — may 
one not even say, what are the Masters themselves. 

These bold, noble sentences were signed, "Harris 
P.," who evidently is a very earnest worker for the 
Society, whose interest he holds so dear. We have 
only extracted from his able and eloquent plea such 
passages as refer to consecration of time, money, and 
all one has to give to one's highest ideal. As to joining 
or working for the Theosophical Society, every individ- 
ual must decide for him or herself. Our counsel is, 
work wherever you feel your work lies, and because 
you feel it lies there. Care not where or how others 
work ; ask not for their commendation, nor be depressed 
if their criticisms are unfavorable. Fidelity to the 
inner light, to the esoteric Christ, the illuminator of 
the world, will alone enable us to unravel the " mystery 
of the ages," and so solve life's problem as to enable us 
to know that " all is good." 



LECTURE XIII. 

PERSIAN, GREEK, AND ROMAN THEOSOPHY. 

As the Persian religion has excited so much attention 
on account of the dualism which is considered its lead- 
ing feature, and as Persian ideas have without doubt 
found their way largely into the Hebrew Scriptures, 
any treatise purporting to give an outline of universal 
Theosophy would be singularly incomplete were no ref- 
erence made to the grand old faith of the Parsees, many 
of whom are to-day sojourners in Hindustan, where they 
form a distinct community, carrying on their worship in 
their own peculiar way, much as do the Jews in Chris- 
tian communities, where they trade with Gentiles freely, 
but in all religious matters keep quite distinct from 
those about them. 

Zoroaster, the name by which the alleged founder of 
Parseeism is generally known, stands for a divine incar- 
nation, much as Buddha does among his followers, and 
as there have been several Buddhas, so there have been 
several illumined teachers, from whose actual lives the 
biography of the traditional Zoroaster has been com- 
piled. Some historians place the date of Zoroaster at 
6000 B.C. ; others make him a contemporary of Abra- 
ham; others, coeval with Pythagoras. As these dates 
differ by thousands of years, as well as centuries, it 



LECTURE XIII. 255 

seems incredible that the same personage is intended 
in all instances ; it is far more reasonable to conclude 
that some illumined teacher has left a record behind 
him dating back to 6000 B.C., while another lived in the 
days of Abraham, and again another in the lifetime of 
Pythagoras. 

The name Zoroaster, or Zurthost, really means a spir- 
itual messenger, aglow with sacred fire, and one who 
brings light to the world, as fire emits light and heat 
to its surroundings ; one, moreover, who consumes the 
stubble of error and purifies the gold of truth, by sep- 
arating from it the alloy with which on earth it has 
been mingled. As Christ, Bucldha, Krishna, and Zoro- 
aster are all spiritual titles, they have never been used 
exclusively with regard to any single individual. The 
Zend-Avesta, or four chief sacred books of the Parsees, 
are in some respects not at all unlike the Hindu Vedas 
and the Hermetic writings of Egypt, which so closely 
resemble each other as to be almost indistinguishable. 
The main feature of Parseeism is its doctrine of eternal 
fire, which is the one absolute divine element, from 
which all creation issues, and to which it all returns. 

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews must have 
been greatly a Parsee in spirit when he said, " Our God 
is a consuming fire " ; but so were almost all the Old 
Testament writers, for scarcely ever do we hear of a 
divine revelation unaccompanied by fire. The pure Fire- 
Spirit of the Parsees and the Hebrew Jehovah, who is 
the God that answers by fire, according to the Book of 
Kings, are almost identical in conception. Swedenborg 
also compares divine life to fire, and says that heat cor- 



256 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

responds to love, and light to wisdom; therefore, as 
God is perfect love and wisdom, fire is the only element 
to which He can be likened ; and this is a thoroughly 
reasonable and acceptable view, as fire is the only all- 
purifying and incorruptible element: earth, air, and 
water are subject to contamination, and often con- 
ducive of disease; fire is all-purifying, and can never 
suffer pollution. 

To show the universality of the Divine Spirit and 
God's immanence in the universe, the Parsee priest, 
when preparing the sacred fire, would kindle a flame in 
several places, and then, to show forth the truth that 
the divine life is the innermost life of all that lives, 
would take only the pure essence of the flame, refined 
through many symbolic processes. In Olcott's " Address 
to the Parsees " we have a fascinating account of how 
the fire is brought from heaven, the " missing spirit 
evoked by the adept Prometheus." In recent novels 
we have come across many allusions to these ancient 
and suggestive practices, and stories containing such 
references are always eagerly read, showing that a pop- 
ular interest is at last awakened in the great religions 
of the world. Such an awakenment of popular senti- 
ment cannot but help forward the glorious cause of 
universal brotherhood, — as we only need to know each 
other better, to love each other more. 

As we pursue our studies in ancient religions we are 
struck ever more and more with the wonderful unity 
in the spirit and essential teaching of all ; and more 
and more convinced that the recent materialistic reac- 
tion, momentarily assisted by a cursory glance at a few 



LECTURE XIII. 257 

scientific discoveries, will soon have passed entirely from 
the minds of reasoning men. On no subject has more 
ignorance been displayed than with reference to the 
true meaning of the " six days of creation." Zoroaster's 
teaching on this subject may be interesting to those 
who are studying comparative cosmogony. It is said 
that at his initiation he acquired the following idea of 
the formation of the globe, which was slowly evolved 
during six gigantic periods of time, of indefinite dura- 
tion, and which are termed Grdhambdrs, meaning ages 
or cycles of great length. In the first, the heavenly 
canopy was formed ; in the second, water was brought 
into existence ; in the third, the earth became solid ; in 
the fourth, vegetation sprang forth ; in the fifth, animal 
life was slowly evolved ; and in the sixth, the animals 
culminated in man. The seventh period is the day of 
the advent of the Messiah, when the sun of our solar 
system will be extinguished, and Pralaya, a period of 
rest from all striving, will begin. 

There can be no doubt that the Persians as well as 
the Hindus were deeply versed in the sciences of invo- 
lution and evolution, and it is an ignorance impossible 
to the learned to berate ancient scriptures, and attribute 
them to unenlightened romancers. They all contain an 
inner meaning, and are in a sense masonic documents. 
This is particularly true of books like Daniel and the 
Apocalypse, which are almost wholly correspondential ; 
but even those in which the historical element far more 
largely preponderates, are by no means simple records 
of local mundane events. The Supreme Being is 
considered by the Parsees to be revealed to man only 



258 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

in the purest essence of fire ; the sacred fire is never 
allowed to go out in the temples, where it burns as a 
perpetual reminder of the immortality of the soul as 
well as of the ever-living Deity. In time, the Persian 
religion presents us with two divinities, or rather with 
a divine being (Ormuzd) and a diabolical spirit (Ahri- 
man) ; but these are brothers, and though they contend 
for a while, they are at length reconciled. Thus the 
distinct teaching is that evil, having a beginning, must 
have an end ; Good, being beginningless, is also endless. 
As the zodiacal element enters into all systems, it would 
not be difficult to connect the six good spirits who pro- 
ceed from Ormuzd with the six summer signs, and the 
six evil spirits which issue from Ahriman as the six 
winter signs, and then in the restitution of all things, 
so firmly believed in by every devout Parsee, trace 
the growth ol man's conception, from belief in evil to 
acknowledgment of good only. Beginning with March 
25th (Lady Day) and ending with September 29th 
(Michaelmas), the good powers were always recognized 
as in the ascendant ; while beginning with Michaelmas 
and ending with Lady Day, the evil powers were con- 
sidered regnant. But no ultimate triumph was ever 
conceded to aught but good ; hence one of the grandest 
festivals of the year was invariably celebrated in the 
middle of winter. Though in time the Parsees believed 
in a perpetual conflict between good personified in 
Ormuzd and evil in Ahriman, in eternity good alone 
was to triumph. Thus the Parsees were very early 
Universalists, and taught exactly what Hosea Ballou 
and other American preachers of modern times pro- 



LECTURE XIII. 259 

claimed when opposing the tenets of the then prevail- 
ing Calvinism. 

Persons who read one bible, and one only, can hardly 
understand the one they read : thus, the ignorant and 
bigoted classes are composed, on the one hand, of those 
who worship one bible, and on the other, of those who 
hate one bible. The enlightened student of compara- 
tive theology, who has read and studied several bibles, 
neither accepts blindly nor blindly condemns ; he rea- 
sons and compares, with a view to finding the under- 
lying truth in all systems of religion, knowing from 
experience that all truth cannot be found in one. Rev. 
Leighton Parks, rector of Emanuel Church, Boston, in 
a very charming volume, entitled "His Star in the 
East : A Study of the Early Aryan Religions," has 
many very interesting facts to relate concerning the 
Parsees, as well as other Oriental bodies, among which 
nothing is more important than the part played by 
Parseeism in moulding Hebrew and, more latterly, Chris- 
tian thought and literature. Previous to the time of 
the Babylonish captivity, the Jews seem to have known 
nothing of an accuser, or Satan; but in the days of 
Ezra, when the Scriptures were re-written, this dis- 
tinctly Persian personage appears prominently on the 
scene. The serpent of Genesis ii. may have come from 
Egypt, also the two classes of serpents mentioned in 
the story of the journeyings through the wilderness, as 
two diametrically opposed aspects of the serpent were 
familiar to the Egyptians of old. The elevated serpent 
signified wisdom, and was a very imposing emblem of 
eternal knowledge and immortal life, while the serpent 



260 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

in its lower attitude was the symbol of carnality, and 
to be trampled under foot by the higher human nature. 
The Egyptian devil, Typhon, is regarded by some as 
the prototype of the Satan of the Book of Job; but 
this latter character corresponds so exactly with the 
Persian Ahriman that there can be little doubt of their 
proximate identity, i.e. the Hebrew Satan is the Per- 
sian Ahriman with a little different local coloring. 

Now, when the Parsees taught that Ormuzd created 
six gods, and that Ahriman also created six gods, and 
therefore in time the universe was subject to the equal 
sway of good and evil, they intended only to illustrate 
that, despite the prevalence of darkness equally with 
light on earth, light alone reigned in eternity. Thus 
the rival deities are found to be one in their source 
and one in their destiny. As light is the most befitting 
emblem of knowledge, so darkness corresponds to igno- 
rance ; but there can be no two opposite substances or 
realities in the universe. God is light, and the only 
reality; Satan is darkness, and therefore but the shadow 
of God. When once this sublime truth is realized, there 
will be no further misunderstanding or lack of solution 
of the problem of life. Evil is no good, as darkness is 
no light and ignorance no knowledge. "Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do," occurs to our 
mind at this time as a most philosophical, as well as 
charitable, construction to put upon human error and 
misdeeds. But if there be no crime in ignorance, it is 
surely a most undesirable and decidedly unsatisfactory 
condition ; therefore let us seek enlightenment, and do 
all in our power to illumine the path of those who yet 



LECTURE XIII. 261 

wander on in darkness. If "sin is mistake," let us use 
every agency we can employ to rectify that error. 

Education, though sometimes severe as a discipline, 
is never spiteful or retaliative in its methods. When 
one is cold, you bring him to the fire, or let the sun 
shine on him, and warmth, the universal invigorator, is 
the only stimulant needed in cases of drowning, etc. : 
whatever is given to stimulate is intended to warm ; a 
warm body is a living organism ; a cold one is a corpse. 
Thus is tribute hourly paid in the Far West in these 
later days to the grand conception of the ancients that 
fire is life, and life is fire ; for where the fire goes out 
animation is extinct, and to reanimate the frame, the 
flame must be rekindled. As it is cold when the sun 
does not shine on us (i.e. when something intervenes 
between us and its beams), so our ignorance is the 
shadow to remove, and when this is removed, we know 
one only God, and all false notions of duality are ex- 
ploded. 

The true dualism of reason and intuition in man is 
the dualism of heat and light, which ever proceed from 
the one parent source — fire. Fire is both hot and 
bright: coal may be hot within when not bright with- 
out; but there can be no flame without heat, though 
there can be heat without visible flame. When we re- 
member that heat corresponds to love, and light to 
wisdom, and that both are expressions of the one divine 
element, fire, we shall understand the spirit not only 
of Zoroastrianism, but of Swedenborg, for the great 
Scandinavian sage taught thousands of years later what 
the gifted Persians taught long before the Christian 



262 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

era, concerning the divine nature and its twofold mani- 
festation in the visible universe. Purity was and is 
the watchword of Parseeism. The little colony of 
Parsees now resident in Bombay (but few are to be 
found in Persia) are scrupulously exact in their in- 
junctions concerning purity, and though unfortunately 
not as a rule deeply versed in the spirit of their noble 
ancient faith, they are noted, wherever known, for ex- 
treme cleanliness of mind and person. They consider 
outward as well as inward purity the one grand essen- 
tial of religion. As they consider all the elements 
sacred, they will not bury or burn the bodies of their 
dead, but expose them to birds of prey after they have 
deposited them in high " towers of silence" While at 
first mention this practice may repel many who think 
lovingly of cemeteries, and may not quite accord with 
the wishes of those who favor crematories, still there is 
nothing whatever repulsive in the thought when one 
becomes accustomed to it, and a Parsee funeral is so 
conducted that the most reverential and fastidious can 
be offended at nothing in the ceremony. 

Differing in some respects widely from the Parsees, 
the Greeks first and then the Romans, in their elabo- 
rate system of polytheism, which, however, always ran 
parallel with pantheism, sought to behold in every 
object the divine life manifest. No Oriental religion 
was ever quite without its polytheistic and pantheistic 
elements; but the two united in the highest Greek 
philosophy and art, and it was at Athens, rather than 
anywhere else, that the highest conception of the divine 
manifestation was grasped in a perfect presentation of 



LECTURE xin. 263 

beauty. Beauty, perfection of form, a complete ulti- 
mation of the divine loveliness, — this was the Greek 
ideal, and those who can see to any depth below the 
letter of the classics, know that classic lore is a rich, 
deep mine of the purest golden ore. Beauty is divine ; 
divinity must ever be beautiful : we turn with a sigh 
of discontent amounting to repugnance from all exhibi- 
tions of extreme asceticism to the matchless beauty 
of Greek Theosophy. There we find the one infinite 
life displayed before our enamoured vision in a million 
different forms of grace and beauty. Polytheism is the 
multiple manifestation of pantheism, which is the ac- 
knowledgment of the one indivisible immanent life. 
If Greece, and then Rome, through abominable sen- 
sualism, defaulted the exquisite models of the original 
Theosophy, primitive Christianity spiritualized them 
once more, and they live in true Christianity to-day, 
though most unfortunately popular Christianity has 
denied the spirit of the classics, as it has thrown a 
veil over its own spiritual scriptures, too often, alas, 
perverted to most unworthy ends. 

Pythagoras, who flourished in Greece about the time 
of Gautama in India a$d Confucius in China, was one of 
the greatest teachers whose imprint has been traced on 
the pages of history. His philosophy was pure Monism, 
and yet in his elaborate system of numerals he allowed 
for an infinity of expressions of the one life. He was 
thus both pantheist (believer in the divine immanence) 
and polytheist (one who recognized the measureless 
variety of the divine manifestations). He it was who 
taught his scholars that all numbers might be lost, but 



264 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the number one must remain eternally, for one is at 
once the greatest and the least, the All and the Atom. 
Socrates, who lived a century later, was the great 
Athenian publicist,, the one who gathered a vast con- 
course of people in the open thoroughfares, and edu- 
cated all who came to him outside the academic halls. 
He taught nothing but what all the learned agreed to. 
His offense consisted in speaking unvarnished truth to 
the common throng. Monopolists hated him, and had 
him put to death; but the spirit of his teachings re- 
mained in his favorite pupil and brilliant successor, 
Plato, who was more politic than his master, and thus 
escaped martyrdom. Socrates was the speaker, Plato, 
the scribe of Athens, at a time when error was coating 
over the beautiful Greek Theosophy which the Apostle 
Paul proclaimed in his magnificent oration to the Athe- 
nians on Mars-Hill. 

As we shall attempt to show in succeeding essays, 
primitive Christianity was a further development of 
much that had preceded it from Greece and Rome. 
Christianity received multitudes of converts, and to 
accommodate their peculiar needs, Paul at least thought 
it desirable to be " all things to all men," an expression 
which the malicious can easily twist into a confession 
of insincerity. The right-minded man or woman sees 
it, however, in a totally different light, and can easily 
perceive that the chief fault of later missions has been 
that missionaries have treated all religions as hopelessly 
false, with the exception of their own, which they have 
proclaimed entirely true. Such an attitude is as igno- 
rant as it is unkind, and brings upon its advocates the 



LECTURE XIII. 265 

hatred and scorn of those they might otherwise en- 
lighten and bless. We are very sorry to see so many 
intelligent men turning away from religion because of 
the utterly stupid manner in which the subject has been 
broached to them. 

Workingmen in the first century were the mainstay 
of the spiritual and socialistic movement, which after a 
while took the name of Christianity, and soon after the 
adoption of that term seemingly began to degenerate. 
Early Christianity was a progressive eclecticism, and its 
endeavor was to unite the world. Rome and Greece 
were its cradles, and from Egypt and Persia it gathered 
the accumulated wisdom of many centuries. Greek 
Theosophy lives in the fourth Gospel, where the Logos, 
or divine word — the expressed divinity — is spoken of 
as perfectly embodied in an ideal human form, but by 
no means confined to any personality, as it is the uni- 
versal light and world-wide enlightener. Theosophy 
alone can explain the Scriptures, revive pure religion, 
and unite the world : thus in India it invites the natives 
to return to the essentials of Hinduism ; in Persia it 
urges the people to return to the old-time wisdom- 
religion of their forefathers ; and in Christendom it 
invites the masses to the spirit of the Gospel, and pre- 
pares an additional banquet for collegians, by unfolding 
to them the spirit of the classics. Study mythologic 
lore with new eyes : let Plato speak to you afresh, as 
you no longer regard him as a pagan ; and the classics as 
well as the Bible, and the poets as well as the prophets, 
will all teach you the one great truth, that we are all 
brothers, and remove from your minds forever the hate- 



266 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

ful thought of a capricious deity and a restricted 
revelation. Listen to the philosophers and poets of 
Greece and Rome as to the sages of the Orient, with 
ears no longer dull of hearing, and you will see for 
yourselves that there is but one religion, spoken in 
many tongues. 

Dr. F. L. H. Willis, a gifted and learned scribe, 
says, in an article which recently appeared in the 
Banner of Light: — 

It was in the sacred seclusion of her own room that the conse- 
crated Greek or Roman maiden sought in faith and prayer to 
reveal the will of heaven. Although she called her Heavenly 
Father by the name of Jove or Jupiter, yet with an ardent heart 
she clung to the sacred life that united her to the spiritual realm, 
and with trusting faith called down the gifts of heaven to her 
mortal consciousness. 

All the ancient Latin and Greek poets present to us the beauty 
and power of this faith in divine things. History is full of facts 
that testify of the truthfulness of this sacred gift of the past, and 
although the veil of ignorance shrouds much of the beauty, yet 
there gleams forth a supernal light to show us how near to earth 
was heaven, even in the days of idolatrous Greece and Rome. 

Cassandra, who, like many mediums of to-day, had to bear the 
imputation of insanity, was one of the great prophets of the Trojan 
nation. She was princess of Troy, but was subject to the divine 
impressions. It was said that her ears were unstopped so that she 
could hear spiritual voices, and her prophecies were literally ful- 
filled. The destruction of Troy and her own death she repeatedly 
foretold. Her prophecies proved not to be warnings. They were 
unheeded by her nation, and it had to learn wisdom through sad 
experiences. 

The Roman Emperor Julian declared that he had familiar com- 
munications with divine beings. He says they awoke him from 
sleep by touching his hand or hair, and that he knew them so 



LECTURE XIII. 267 

well that he could instantly distinguish their voices and their 
forms. 

Pausanias, the Roman historian, says that in the temple of 
iEsculapius at Epidaurus, a pillar was erected in memory of Hyp- 
politus, who had been raised from the dead, and Strabo says the 
temples were full of the records of such miracles as healing the 
sick, raising the dead, making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, 
the lame to walk, etc. 

Enlightened minds of Greece and Rome did not worship the 
many gods, but only one Supreme Spirit, considering the minor 
deities as only impersonations of the attributes of the one great 
Deity. With this view we can readily see how the beauty of the 
universe could call forth reverence, and the strength and wisdom 
thereof excite adoration. Thus also we learn how definite and 
clear to these old Greeks and Romans must have been these ideas 
of spiritual visions and realities, for notwithstanding they often 
said the gods gave the visions, they must have considered all spir- 
itual appearances as coming through individual intelligence in the 
spirit-world. 

Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of any age, had 
implicit faith in spiritual presence and power. His demon or 
genius was his constant adviser. He listened to its voice rever- 
ently, and its promptings were his inspiration. He believed that 
every one had a heavenly guardian, who constantly attended him 
until death, when it returned to a higher and diviner life. It is 
related of him in Grote's History of Greece that when he was 
accompanying the army of Xenophon he became entranced, and 
so great was his absorption that he took no notice of anything 
transpiring around him. It was under the scorching sun, and he 
was standing ; but he remained motionless while the whole army 
passed by, and all efforts to arouse him were in vain. After he 
came out of this condition he said he had been talking with a spirit. 

Xenophon in his " Apology " says : " I call this voice of Socrates 
the divine, or spiritual influence." Socrates himself says of it : 
" One day when I was about to cross the river, I saw the usual 
spiritual sign which prohibits me from doing anything. I seemed 
to hear a voice also." 



268 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Our modern wise men have been greatly puzzled by the avowal 
of this faith, in so great and wise a man as Socrates. Some have 
said it was the voice of conscience, others that it was imagina- 
tion ; but his own testimony and that of Xenophon is, It was a 
spirit. 

Plato had a similar faith, though perhaps more clearly denned 
than that of Socrates. He says of spirits : — 

" Their office is to go between gods and men ; to convey and in- 
terpret to the gods the prayers and offerings of men, and bring to 
men the commands of the gods. Deity can have no immediate 
intercourse with men. All communication between gods and 
mortals is carried on by means of spirits, both in sleeping and 
waking." 

In another place he says : — 

" They are clothed with air, wander through heaven, hover over 
the stars and abide on the earth. They behold unveiled the secrets 
of time to come, and regulate events according to their pleasure. " 

He too believed that every human spirit received at birth a 
guardian spirit, who accompanied him to the end, and witnessed 
all his thoughts and actions. 

In Plato's " Ion " there is a remarkable dialogue which we have 
space to but briefly mention. Ion asks Socrates why it is that 
when he is reciting the poems of Homer, he should do it with a 
power that deserted him with respect to all other poets. Socrates, 
in reply, proceeds to unfold the most wonderful and beautiful the- 
ory of divine inspiration, and closes with these words : — 

"You, O Ion, are influenced bv Homer. If vou recite the 

7 7 ,/ t/ 

w T orks of any other poet, you get drowsy, and are at a loss what to 
say ; but when you hear any of the compositions of that poet you 
are roused ; your thoughts are excited, and you grow eloquent ; for 
what you say of Homer is not derived from any art or knowledge, 
but from divine inspiration and possession. As the Corybantes 
feel acutely the melodies of him by whom they are inspired, and 
abound with verse and gesture for his songs alone, and care for no 
other, thus you, O Ion, are eloquent when you expound Homer, 
and are barren of words with regard to every other poet. And 
this explains the question you asked wherefore Homer and no 



LECTURE XIII. 269 

other poet inspires you with eloquence ? It is because you are thus 
excellent in your recitations not through science, but from divine 
inspiration." 

Pythagoras professed to communicate directly with spiritual be- 
ings through visions. Aristotle furnishes us with an elaborate and 
remarkably strong theory of dreams as inspired by spiritual beings. 

Apollonius of Tyana, a follower of Pythagoras, cured diseases 
and predicted future events. "Do you imagine," says he, "that 
spirits are anything else but souls ? It is not strange that souls 
should come to souls, and impart knowledge either by a touch or 
a glance." 

In this manner we might go through the whole list of Grecian 
and Roman poets, philosophers, and wise men, giving their faith 
and their declarations, but we have brought from these two nations 
sufficient evidence for our purpose. They all harmonize, and all 
are clear and definite on this faith in spirit-communion. It was at 
the foundation of all their religious belief, and it was the inspira- 
tion of their religious fervor. All the poetry and the imagination 
of Greece in the days of her intellectual grandeur rested on this 
basis of belief in Spiritualism, and from out the half-clouded radi- 
ance we find fact and theory, and the divine power of God in man. 

As we thus lift the curtain of the past, and bring back its history, 
the record of its thought and feeling, how full of beauty is the 
diviner part of man's nature. In spite of all its weakness and 
folly, its ignorance and sin, it has blossomed forth into individual- 
ized characters of great beauty and perfection, and in revelations 
of wonderful truth and spirituality. Should we not become more 
humble and less arrogant as we learn thus of the revelations of 
divine truth given to all men in all ages ? Should we not become 
more thankful as we learn of the certainty of inspiration in all 
times, more studious as we learn of the laws that govern the spir- 
itual condition, and more hopeful as we learn of the power of 
beautiful facts and phenomena over philosophy and religion ? 

While the golden hue of the intellectual days of Athens and of 
Rome has dazzled the students of our colleges and schools, let us 
see in it the simplicity and beauty of divine inspiration, and thus 
we can bring. the great representatives of the past, Pythagoras, 



270 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Plato, and Socrates, into the list of those of our own faith, and 
feel the friendly influence of their lives reaching even our own age 
and time. 

Thus have Greece and Rome borne their testimony, and added 
glowing links to the chain of evidence that brightens as it winds 
down through the centuries. 



LECTURE XIV. 

CHINESE THEOSOPHY. — CONFUCIANISM. 

An article in the August, 1887, number of the North 
American Review entitled, "Why am I a Heathen?" 
from the pen of an educated Chinaman, Wong Chin 
Foo, has been read and commented upon by perhaps 
millions of people all over the United States, and its 
circulation has been by no means confined to America. 
The article itself, though deeply interesting, is by no 
means remarkable from a literary point of view. The 
writer evinces no profound acquaintance with his sub- 
ject; his reasons for remaining a "heathen" are quite 
commonplace ; they are, nevertheless, of such a char- 
acter as to deeply impress the average reader, and 
without discussing the actual literary merits of this 
singular effusion, we cannot restrain an expression of 
gratitude to the writer for the very concise and definite 
manner in which he has stated his reasons for uphold- 
ing Confucianism and objecting to become a Christian. 
It may possibly be a surprise to some people to be told 
that Chinamen, as a class, are neither atheists nor idol- 
aters, but believers in one Infinite God, in the immor- 
tality of the human soul, and in future rewards and 
punishments proportioned to the merits of all who re- 
ceive them. To the unenlightened and untravelled 



272 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

American or European the Chinaman is an idolater, 
paying homage to some grotesque and miserable fetish 
to be witnessed in a Joss house, and certainly the aspect 
of Chinatown and the Chinese in California is not always 
likely to dispel this illusion ; but then, what can be said 
of the illiterate Roman Catholic peasantry of Europe, 
and their forms of devotion — of the adoration paid to 
wayside crosses and images of saints often appearing 
like children's tawdry dolls ? The priests do not incul- 
cate idolatry, and the most ignorant Romanist would 
indignantly repel the charge of idolatry if brought 
against him ; but appearances, all must confess, foster 
rather than dispel the opinion of the uninstructed 
stranger. The Chinese religion sanctions idolatry no 
more than does the Christian. Confucius worshiped 
idols no more than Jesus ; and though his day was five 
or six centuries earlier than that of Jesus, his teachings 
were in many instances identical in spirit with those of 
the great Galilean master. It may be interesting before 
proceeding further, to briefly review the life and teach- 
ings of Confucius and contrast them with those of 
Jesus. 

The time when Confucius was born was one of those 
marked eras in the history of nations which invariably 
produce great and gifted men. The Jews were just re- 
turning to Palestine after the Babylonish captivity ; 
the Greeks were triumphing over Xerxes, the Persian ; 
thus the world was in a state of peculiar readiness for 
some great intellectual and moral luminary who should 
enforce the essential truths of all religions, and so put 
forward the fundamental principles of morality, that 



LECTUKE XIV. 273 

government and the social order might be reconstructed 
on a higher base than previously. 

It is singular that one so highly gifted and so emi- 
nently successful as Confucius should have given way 
to melancholy in his later years, and pronounced his 
mission a failure ; but great souls are exceedingly sen- 
sitive, and their ideals so immeasurably higher than 
those of the populace around them, that what would 
be termed triumph by the majority seems almost defeat 
to them, and we may pertinently ask if ever during the 
physical lifetime of a seer or sage, he wins that glorious 
victory over prejudice and wrong which is his ulti- 
mately in unlimited degree ? The temperament of 
Confucius was scholarly and sedate, yet there burned 
within him the most ardent and enthusiastic ambitions, 
not for his own aggrandizement, but for the elevation of 
his nation, and indeed the whole human family. It is 
well to note the precocity of many great heroes and 
heroines of history. Their boyhood or girlhood has usu- 
ally been marked by some special streaks of brilliancy, 
and he whose career we are now considering was no ex- 
ception to this rule ; indeed he was one of its most 
forcible illustrations. At seventeen his biographers tell 
us he held the high office of inspector of grain, a posi- 
tion of trust and responsibility, and we are assured by 
Wong Chin Foo, in his article in the North American 
Review, that in conservative China offices are held only 
by those whose competency has led to their election or 
appointment ; so we may feel sure Confucius must have 
been a singularly bright and capable boy to be promoted 
to such a station while so young in years. This ap- 



274 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

pointment gave him the very opportunity he needed to 
show of what pure metal he was made. So conscien- 
tious and just was he in his every transaction that he 
won one of the highest marks of distinction a rising 
young man of business can possibly obtain. He was 
feared and detested by usurers, cheats, and merciless 
monopolists ; he could neither be bought nor sold ; in- 
tegrity was the polar star of his life ; honesty the only 
air in which he could breathe without suffocation. At 
nineteen, at which age he married, he enjoyed promo- 
tion to a much higher office, that of inspector-general 
of fields and herds, and in that superior place he con- 
tinued to show in a marked degree those traits of manly 
excellence which had shone so conspicuously in him 
while he adorned a lower sphere. We may here take 
notice of the thoroughness with which a really great 
man does everything he essays to do at all. A great 
man's motto invariably is, "Whatever is worth doing 
at all, is worth doing well " ; or he translates the Chris- 
tian maxim, " Whatsoever your hands find to do, that 
do with all your might" into daily and hourly practice. 
All over the land, under the guidance of Confucius, 
agriculture was so improved that waste lands were ren- 
dered fertile, and the necessaries of life were everywhere 
cheapened and improved. Such faithful service to his 
country was not allowed to pass unnoticed; his fame 
increased, his reputation spread, till even at court his 
name was mentioned with respect and admiration. 

His mother, whom he loved devotedly, and for whom 
he entertained a feeling akin to worship, passed from 
her mortal form while her beloved son was still a very 



LECTURE XIV. 275 

young man. Contrary to many despicable Eastern 
customs, which exemplify the degrading theory of 
woman's inferiority to man, Confucius so ordered the 
conduct of his mother's burial that no honor shown to 
his father's remains might be omitted at the interment 
of his mother. Whatever may have been the previous 
rites of burial among the Chinese, since his day it has 
been the unfailing custom in China to show equal re- 
spect to male and female departed. The words of Con- 
fucius on this subject are quoted as a maxim, " Those 
whom we have alike loved in life should not be sepa- 
rated in our respect in death." After his mother's 
passage to the unseen state, Confucius spent three 
whole years in retirement ; giving up his public work 
and resigning his emoluments, he spent three of the 
best years of his life, from twenty-four to twenty-seven, 
in the study of truth, meditating on questions of im- 
mortal import to mankind. That very grief, which to 
him partook of the form of the sorest bereavement im- 
aginable, opened his eyes to the Great Unseen; a busi- 
ness career no longer held any charms for him; the 
commonplaces of material existence seemed to him as 
nothing in comparison with those great questions of 
life and death which make the thoughtful man forget 
time and space as he strives to realize the stupendous 
facts of infinity and eternity. In the freshness of his 
bereavement his meditations were of a somber cast; it 
was only with great difficulty he could lay hold on the 
truth of immortality. Reared as he was in ancestor 
worship, he could but feel the influence of the spiritu- 
alistic ideas with which the mental air he breathed was 



276 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

fully charged ; still a vague unrest possessed him, and 
while he retained implicit faith and reposed his entire 
confidence in Deity, whom he called the Principle of 
Life, there was a vein of pessimism in his philosophy 
which tended to sadden its founder, and in after years 
to enervate his followers. 

It may be instructive as well as interesting to inquire 
somewhat closely into the Confucian idea of God, Avhich 
is without doubt a very exalted one, though possibly, 
in the eyes of some, slightly pantheistic. In a conver- 
sation said to have taken place between Confucius and 
one of the princes of his country later in his life he ex- 
presses himself thus : " Chang-Ty (the Chinese term 
for the Supreme Spirit) is the universal Principle of 
Life — the faithful source whence all things have pro- 
ceeded. To show gratitude to heaven is man's first 
duty ; to show gratitude to ancestors his second." He 
explained how, after having rendered thanks to the 
Universal Spirit from whom all things flow, our hearts 
naturally turn lovingly to those departed worthies and 
beloved teachers and friends through whose instrumen- 
tality our minds have been directed toward the Supreme 
and our feet turned into the path of obedience to divine 
commandments. Duty to God can never be separated 
from duty to man; gratitude to God is inseparable 
from gratitude to man ; we never find a great and good 
man or woman in all the annals of history who is not 
noted for filial devotion and respect shown to the great 
and good who have gone before. 

A feature of the doctrine of Confucius, which may 
seem to some to condone the vice of idolatry, is very 



LECTURE XIV. 277 

easily explained if we can comprehend the exceeding 
subtlety of his intellect and his deep spiritual conscious- 
ness of the omnipresence of the Infinite Being. He 
never discountenanced the symbolic rites and practices 
of his countrymen ; on the other hand, he gave them 
the sanction of his approval, justifying them in words 
like the following : " Under whatever title man renders 
worship ; whoever may be the apparent object of it, and 
of whatever nature may be the apparent ceremonies, it 
is always to Chang-Ty that one renders it, and it is 
Chang-Ty who is the object of veneration." 

In reading O. B. Frothingham's " Life of Theodore 
Parker " we meet with passages in that great preacher's 
sayings when in conversation with Italian Catholic 
priests, strongly reminding us of the above quotation 
from Confucius. When Parker witnessed the devo- 
tions of the people at the shrines of their patron saints 
and listened to their intercessions, he calmly remarked 
that God probably cared little or nothing for the lan- 
guage in which petitions were couched, but everything 
for the state of mind and heart which led to prayers 
being offered at all. On one occasion he boldly said he 
did not think God would be offended if an honest though 
ignorant child should call the Eternal Parent St. Cecilia. 
The Roman Catholic priest to whom he made the re- 
mark was shocked, and said such views supported idol- 
atry. How singular it seems that the very persons who 
are most addicted to seemingly idolatrous practices are 
the very ones who can see the least deeply into the 
spiritual' truth they enshrine and hide. Probably this 
is due to the fact that those alone are highly gifted 



278 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

with spiritual discernment who have outlived the mental 
condition for which such forms constitute needed pabu- 
lum. Confucius, twenty-four centuries before Parker, 
was as uncompromising and devout a theist as he, and 
the very comprehensiveness of his pure theism enabled 
him to find the true God everywhere, in everybody and 
everything, and thus make excuses for all imperfection, 
though crime was hateful in his sight, and vice a target 
at which he directed his sharpest and surest arrows. 

In many respects Confucius might be called a relig- 
ious Rationalist ; natural instead of supernatural relig- 
ion won his confidence ; his mind was too large, his 
sympathies too universal to permit of his taking that 
contracted view of revelation so prevalent among ortho- 
dox Christians. His whole system being founded on a 
recognition of universal justice and impartiality, he 
could not escape the conclusion that all the nations of 
earth, and all men individually, are accepted of God in 
proportion to their uprightness. 

Wong Chin Foo truly says, the Calvinistic idea of 
predestination, with its awful doctrine of election for 
some and reprobation for others, has no place in the 
Confucian philosophy. It must be carefully borne in 
mind that Confucius stands before the world as a phi- 
losopher rather than as a theologian. He never en- 
deavored to form *a religious sect ; his whole aim and 
ambition was to save the state ; and knowing, as all 
wise statesmen must, that a nation's security depends 
on its morality, he rendered sacred all secular ideas and 
duties, carrying practical religion into daily life and 
commercial enterprise, instead of allowing it to be re- 



LECTURE XIV. 279 

garded as a thing apart, to be brought into requisition 
one hour a day, or one day a week, while all the rest of 
the time can be devoted to purely material endeavors. 

Religion, rightly defined, is the science of righteous 
living ; and as rectitude is as necessary in the holder of 
a civil as an ecclesiastical office, a true philosophy must 
needs be theological (as was that of Plato), if theology 
be defined, as it is by able etymologists, to mean first 
and last the knowledge of divine truth. As all relig- 
ious concepts have a more or less direct bearing on the 
affairs of every-day life, a statesman or man of business 
needs to be fully as religious as one whose profession 
permits him to style himself a reverend minister of the 
Gospel. 

The mind of Confucius turning as it did to moral 
philosophy, and the supreme object of his life being the 
reduction of moral theory to practice as a safeguard 
and savior of the nation, he early abandoned his politi- 
cal and business career and devoted his time and 
strength solely to the interests of philosophy. Like 
many another hero of the Old World, though he had a 
glorious ideal before him, he was always directing his 
own gaze and that of others to an ideal past. History 
informed him of a time long past when the government 
was purer and the people holier than in his day ; and 
forgetful of the proverb, "Distance lends enchantment 
to the view," he permitted his mind to revert too fre- 
quently to olden days. This tinged his thought with 
sadness. It fostered deep regret and often hindered 
the advancement of the very cause in which all his en- 
ergies and sympathies were enlisted. 



280 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Being of an artistic turn of mind, refined in his tastes 
almost to the verge of fastidiousness, he would fre- 
quently withdraw from all associates and turn to music 
and the sister arts for rest and recreation; music (of 
which he was passionately fond) always delighted him. 
He also took great interest in literary style and mat- 
ters of etiquette, and of the use of arms he was not 
ignorant. His relations with the unseen world were 
very intimate, but some of his sayings give rise to 
the opinion that he was more of a Positivist than a 
Spiritualist. 

The best followers of Auguste Comte could heartily 
sympathize with such exclamations as " The world is 
open to me ; what am I fitted for? What is my place ? 
Shall I live for time or for the long future — for the 
commonweal, or for my own narrow good?" He de- 
cided as all noble souls decide. The remonstrances of 
friends, who told him he was throwing himself away on 
philosophy and reformatory projects (difficult if not im- 
possible to realize), weighed nothing with him. The 
most brilliant offers failed to entice him ; he was desir- 
ous of sinking every personal ambition in unwearied 
labor for the general good. The " Ancient Doctrine " 
was his text. All his discourses might have been from 
the text, " Choose the old paths and walk in them," and 
as eulogists are apt to overestimate the characters of 
whom they speak, so Confucius threw a glamour of 
glory round the heads of the nation's ancestors and held 
up these halo-crowned worthies as though they were in 
fact almost more than mortals. 

We notice a tendency in many reverent and grateful 



LECTURE XIV. 281 

minds to dwell exclusively upon the virtues of the past, 
totally ignoring its vices. In biblical exegesis this is 
too frequently the case ; it is an error of the gravest 
type, as it supports pessimism more than all arguments 
combined. The grand old Hebrew Bible gives us no 
encouragement in this direction, as it proves its truthful- 
ness, and the wisdom and foresight of its authors in no 
way so forcibly as in the attitude of impartial criticism 
it assumes toward patriarchs and prophets as well as 
common every-day men and women. The patriarchs 
and sages are not represented as perfect by any means. 
Their vices and frailties, even their crimes, are fully 
recorded, so we rise from a diligent perusal of Jewish 
Scripture, far more ready to thank God for the happy 
times in which we live and for our manifold blessings, 
than to sigh over a forfeited paradise in which purity 
and wisdom blazed in dazzling brightness, and ruled 
with undisputed sway. 

Despite this criticism of the method and mental front- 
age of Confucius, we can but give our unquestioning 
sanction to the models he held up as examples to the 
populace. . . . The ancients, as he pictured them, 
were gods rather than men. Their historical virtues 
may have been fancied, but as ideals they were almost 
matchless. Supposing they were in some instances ro- 
mantic personages to some extent or even evolved from 
the fertile fancy of Confucius himself, they were samples 
of the highest excellence, and in an exemplar w r e want 
to see virtue itself exhibited even though as in a ro- 
mance lay figures may be introduced. Still the Con- 
fucian ideal of judicial administration was not perfect. 



282 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Certain of his maxims we had better avoid. Those we 
should avoid are indeed very few compared with those 
we would do well to adopt; but as he supports the 
theory of capital punishment as necessary for traitors, 
in order that social welfare be preserved, we can see at 
least one serious flaw in an otherwise almost perfect 
philosophy. 

Speaking of office-holders he says, if they were in- 
efficient or indifferent, remove them at once ; but if dis- 
honest morally or financially, execute them as traitors. 
Here we find one of the greatest blots in the recommen- 
dations of Confucius. His endorsement of capital pun- 
ishment shows there is a rotten timber somewhere in 
his platform of principles. True, the professing Chris- 
tian cannot take exception to this, for nowhere are exe- 
cutions more common than in avowedly Christian lands. 
The Christian church has always advocated and sup- 
ported hanging for murder, and only recently we read 
of a horrid sensation in France over the guillotine ; but 
it must be distinctly borne in mind that when Confu- 
cians execute criminals they are acting in harmony with 
the teachings of their most venerated leader, while 
Christians are guilty of a disgraceful violation of the 
law proclaimed by him whom they profess to regard, if 
they are orthodox, as incarnate Deity, and if they are 
unorthodox (Universalist or Unitarian for example), as 
the noblest specimen of manhood and brightest moral 
exemplar the world has ever seen. 

Wong Chin Foo when he invites the Christians of 
America to come to Confucius should remember that if 
they adhere closely to the precepts of Jesus they can 



LECTURE XIV. 283 

gain nothing by transferring their allegiance to the 
great Chinese philosopher; and if it be objected that 
Christianity has been in existence over eighteen hun- 
dred years and has failed to bless the world to any ap- 
preciable extent, bloody wars and religious persecutions 
having characterized its advance everywhere, we must 
boldly and fairly meet the issue by denouncing popular 
Christianity as a system of usurpation, the name of 
Jesus having been made a cloak wherewith to cover the 
vilest atrocities and the most disgusting hypocrisy. The 
religion of Jesus and nominal Christianity are two very 
different things. The former is a simple gospel of uni- 
versal charity, the latter a tissue of creeds and dogmas, 
many of them utterly false and terribly pernicious in 
their effects upon society. The gospels, however, afford 
no warrant for such dogmas, all of which were derived 
from mythology, not from the teachings of Jesus or the 
older sayings of the Hebrew prophets. Paul, not Jesus, 
was the founder of creedal Christianity, and he derived 
his materials largely from ancient Egyptian scriptures, 
with which his letters to the Corinthians prove his famil- 
iarity. His whole argument for the resurrection is based 
on Egyptian teaching and symbolism, and when he al- 
ludes to certain things being written in the Scriptures, 
we search in vain for them in the Old Testament, and 
scholars inform us the gospels were not then in exist- 
ence. The Egyptian origin of many, though certainly 
not all of the doctrines and ceremonies of the prevail- 
ing Christian Church, can readily be proved by refer- 
ence to history. Paul was a complex character; his 
was a very learned mind ; as a reasoner his astuteness 



284 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

was marvelous ; but if the evangelists speak truly, his 
character was widely different from that of Jesus. He 
burned to make proselytes, while Jesus protested against 
proselytism, after the manner of Israelites generally. 
Jesus was a consistent but extremely progressive Jew, 
who never attacked the temple worship or the syna- 
gogue as an institution. His respect for the Mosaic 
law was unsurpassed, though he took exception to 
many Levitical injunctions, and showed little counte- 
nance to puerile Talmudic fables. 

If Jesus were on earth to-day, his doctrines would 
find far more favor with progressive Jews than with 
orthodox Christians. 

Jesus, like Confucius, was a political reformer as 
well as a moralist. He was by no means the " miracle 
worker " many people suppose him to have been, neither 
was he an illiterate man as many suppose ; for though 
the secret source of his " letters " was a mystery to his 
countrymen, he displayed remarkable evidences of learn- 
ing on many occasions ; and when did a man create as 
much astonishment among the multitudes by knowing 
so much of " letters " as he did among the doctors at 
Jerusalem when only twelve ? The historical element 
in the gospels shows us Jesus as a very lovely char- 
acter. Ernest Renan has eulogized him none too 
highly, though we think Renan's criticisms a little too 
sentimental. We can detect fully as much power as 
sweetness in the character of Jesus. The phrase, 
" lovely Galilean vision," does not touch all sides of 
his character by any means, for he was one of the 
most rigid moralists the world has ever seen ; even 



LECTUBE XIV. 285 

Isaiah was never more severe in his denunciation of 
injustice than was Jesus ; but with all his bold denun- 
ciation of error he preached love as the only savior of 
sinners. Once in a while he could dilate grandly on 
the terrible retribution awaiting the ungodty, but love 
was the key-note of all his sermons. Love with him 
was alpha and omega, and it is only in the thirteenth 
chapter of St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, 
that that great apostle thoroughly presents the religion 
of Jesus in its native simplicity. James and John 
both interpreted Jesus better than Paul on the whole, 
though they may not have been Paul's equals in 
scholarship. 

Luther was blind indeed when he became so carried 
away with Paul's doctrine of justification by faith as to 
reject the epistle of James, calling it an epistle of straw 
when it is really one of the finest, if not the very finest 
of all the epistles. Had Luther looked more deeply 
into the true nature of faith he would have seen that 
James was the most lynx-eyed of all the apostles, for 
his interpretation of faith chimes in exactly with the 
doctrine of Jesus, and is most true etymologically to 
the sources whence faith (Latin fides, which gives us 
the English word fidelity') is derived. We cannot con- 
trast the doctrine of Jesus concerning faith with that 
of Confucius, for the two are one. Confucius extols 
rectitude; Jesus, faithfulness : and here if we have a 
distinction at all, it is without a difference, and there- 
fore none in reality. What our Chinese friend Wong 
Chin Foo objects to, is the very thing we are never 
tired of attacking, and which we are frequently com- 



286 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

pelled to rebuke, and that is the mischievous way 
in which blind belief is confounded with and substi- 
tuted for genuine faith, which is a virtue, a moral 
excellence, certainly not a blind belief in ecclesiasti- 
cal assumptions. 

" He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth 
not shall be condemned " (sometimes the harsher word 
damned is used) is a text which has led to the detest- 
able inference that there is but a single step from the 
gallows to glory, if a criminal only repent at the elev- 
enth hour ; and by repentance is meant not reforma- 
tion, but belief in vicarious atonement. Had that 
passage been always translated true to its original in- 
tent, our Chinese friend would have had no opportunity 
to enter his protest against the demoralizing doctrines 
of popular Christianity. For, had no liberties been 
taken with the original, and had the general tenor of 
" Christ's " teaching been taken into account, the text 
would read, he who is faithful (i.e. full of faith in its true 
sense) shall be saved, he who is unfaithful (faithless) 
shall be condemned. Here is common ground between 
Jew, Gentile, and undenominational teacher of ethics. 
Professor Huxley expresses unqualified admiration for 
the simple ethics of Judaism as expounded by Micah. 
Professor Tyndal admires the Decalogue and has fre- 
quently advocated the strict observance of the eighth 
commandment especially. Judaism is the purest of all 
the world's great religions, its professed doctrines con- 
stituting the foundation of all religions. Jesus was no 
apostate or renegade Jew ; he may have been turned 
out of the synagogue, as many noble men have been, 



LECTURE XIV. 287 

when the synagogue has been mismanaged by ignorant 
and bigoted conservatives, as in the days of Spinoza in 
Germany ; but if we are to acknowledge Jesus as " a 
teacher sent from God," especially if we are to see in 
him the greatest teacher who ever lived, as Christians 
claim him to have been, we must revert to first prin- 
ciples, and gladly and contentedly submit to obey the 
moral law given by Moses to the children of Israel, 
not indeed in all its literal severity as proclaimed 
by uncompromising sticklers for the letter, but in that 
deep and true sense in which it can be fulfilled in 
love. 

We are constantly plied with questions relative to 
the treatment of criminals : this seems to indicate either 
that crime is on the increase, and therefore the popular 
mind is unusually exercised concerning it; or that a 
wave of merciful feeling is sweeping over the public 
that is so far changing it as to occasion a drift away 
from the old barbaric administrations of reproof. There 
can be but two lawful objects to be obtained by the en- 
forcement of penalties, viz. : the reformation of the 
offender and the protection of society. We unhesitat- 
ingly declare that capital punishment neither reforms 
nor protects ; it may have been lawful in a darker age, 
but eighteen hundred and fifty years ago the highest 
thought in Palestine was in advance of it, Jesus seeing 
nothing in a perfect fulfillment of the moral law which 
required the taking away of a human life, even the life 
of one who had slain his neighbor. He distinctly, and 
with great emphasis, repudiates the belief that God is 
the author of a retaliative policy : all retaliation he at- 



288 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

tributes to certain men of old with whom he disagrees ; 
yet he says he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill 
it. The object of legislation is unchanging; its out- 
ward forms are subject to incessant alteration, for with 
the constant development of human intelligence, and 
particularly the moral sense, institutions once regarded 
as essential to the preservation of social order are 
frowned upon as not only useless, but inhuman. " An 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth " was barbaric 
justice. No one could call it injustice, for it was exact 
retribution for the offense committed ; one eye ex- 
changed for one eye, one tooth as payment for one 
tooth, seems perfectly fair and harmonizes perfectly 
with that crude idea of compensation which possesses 
the spiritually untutored mind. But Jesus, seeing far 
more deeply into the essence of the moral law, knew 
such modes of carrying out the law of justice must 
inevitably result in a cruel enforcement of justice, un- 
tempered by mercy, and wherever love is absent, the 
reformatory and protective elements in just penalties 
are alike impossible. 

The old prophecies, " whosoever sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed," and " a life for 
a life" are references to the Oriental doctrine of Karma, 
upon which we have entered treating of Buddhism. To 
interpret prophecy as though it were commandment, 
leads to gross errors in administration ; but only the 
humane and gentle are gifted with sufficient spiritual 
insight to discern the true meaning of such profound 
utterances as deal with the (to ordinary minds) insol- 
uble mysteries of divine government. 



LECTURE XIV. 289 

Whenever Jesus is really appealed to as an authority 
by Christians, Christianity loses all its asperity ; its con- 
tradictions are forgotten, its ecclesiastical savagery is 
replaced by love, and a fair and lovely vision of divine 
beneficence supplants the hideous spectacle of a relig- 
ious inquisition. The cathedral at Seville, in Spain, in 
front of which, in the open square, bull fights are of 
common occurrence, is a scandal and disgrace to those 
who profess to worship Jesus, of sufficient magnitude 
to justify the harshest accusations by the most rabid 
opponents of the system. The horrors of the Spanish 
inquisition, whose blood-curdling details are so often re- 
hearsed as arguments against Christianity, are indeed 
enough to repel any intelligent or humane Jew or 
"heathen" from a system under whose auspices such 
flagrant iniquities could possibly be sustained, and we 
hesitate not to say that recent persecutions of Jews in 
Russia and Poland have been vile enough to brand pro- 
fessedly Christian governments with the stigma of 
perpetual infamy. Yea, and the dealings of modern 
nations with the Orient, — opium forced upon the Chi- 
nese at the point of the bayonet by Christian soldiers. 
Missionaries, Bibles, ardent spirits, and hosts of dis- 
solute practices, all sent together out to China by 
Christian emissaries, avowedly bent on the holy mission 
of sanctifying the heathen, cannot but create a fearful 
recoil against Christianity in the minds of the Chinese, 
while in this country so little is done to benefit the 
Chinamen that the thought of foreign missions must 
appear ludicrous in the extreme to the serene and 
placid follower of Confucius, who taught every citizen 



290 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

to mind his own business, to value virtue more than 
gold, and to let well alone, instead of forever, with fev- 
erish haste, rushing after innovations, and living so 
restless a life that health, happiness, and morality are 
squandered in the idolatry of the god of gold. 

Wong Chin Foo accuses Americans of worshiping the 
almighty dollar more than God, of building costly tem- 
ples and other avowedly religious and philanthropic in- 
stitutions, which they support at the expense of justice 
and benevolence ; and in bringing forward such accusa- 
tions he is doing what Jesus himself would commend, 
for surely no one who ever lived detested avaricious- 
ness more than he who told his followers not to be 
anxious concerning any material thing. Strange, in- 
deed, to a " heathen " must be the anomalous spectacle 
of a people worshiping Jesus with their lips, and practi- 
cally deserting his precepts with barefaced impudence. 
Against the religion of Jesus, Wong Chin Foo has 
not uttered a single word. In his eulogy of Confu- 
cius and the Chinese religion he has not betrayed him- 
self into a single extravagance, but he has evidently 
failed to see wherein Jesus as a moral teacher surpassed 
Confucius, and may indeed have been that " star in the 
west" to which Confucius pointed, whose bright shin- 
ing in days to come he eloquently foretold. 

Having alluded to the pessimistic tendencies of the 
system of Confucius, and to his melancholy disposition, 
we do not feel it would be just to dismiss our theme 
without assigning what we feel to be, after all, the true 
reason for the sadness of the great Chinese sage. So 
lofty were his ideals, so keen his prophetic foresight, 



LECTURE XIV. 291 

that his spirit looked ahead across the vistas of ages, 
and saw the ultimate future not only of China, but of 
the world. The true greatness of all idealism consists 
in its prophetic inspiration. Realism is cold, lifeless, 
and inefficient, because it sees no future. Artistic cre- 
ations are immortal ; imitations are all short-lived. 
Quixotic schemes, Utopian projects, never desert us, 
because Don Quixote is ever a prophet, and Utopia is 
our future state of being. 

All before us, not behind us, lies paradise without a 
serpent. The future of the world will witness the ab- 
sence of every obnoxious beast, venomous reptile, pois- 
onous tree, and contentious man ; but the future is often 
the distant future, and he who thinks it immediate is 
terribly apt to be disheartened and die in despair of his 
darling hopes ever being fulfilled for humanity. Isaiah 
saw the possible future of the house of Israel, and the 
certain destiny of universal mankind. In his noblest 
flights of poetry time and distance are annihilated. He 
sees the whole earth in the coming days of glory, but 
never yet in the experience of the Jewish people have 
Isaiah's glorious prophecies been literally fulfilled, and 
Christianity has certainly been far from the realization 
of Isaiah's vision. Still Isaiah's words of hope and 
comfort have kept up the fainting spirits of exiled, per- 
secuted Hebrews, when to be a Jew in Europe meant to 
be an outlaw, to dwell in a wretched ghetto apart from 
all the rest of mankind, and be a target at which the 
most envenomed arrows of hatred and cruel mendacity 
were perpetually hurled. 

Jeremiah, on the other hand, though also a great 



292 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

prophet, never rose to the sublimity of Isaiah, because 
he was the poet of complaint, while Isaiah was the poet 
of hope and jubilant exultation. Individual tempera- 
ment has much to do with the view one takes of life ; 
a restless, eager soul that cannot always feast upon the 
outlined glories of celestial mountains rising above the 
clouds in the far distance, falls into depression, often 
into despair, when darkness intercepts his view, and 
mists and shadows hide the mountains from his gaze. 
Confucius could never stand on the top of Mt. Pisgah 
and view the promised land as the sure and certain pos- 
session of his countrymen in his later days. He could 
not see beyond death, as Jesus or as Moses could. He 
was disheartened because of the length of time spent 
in the wilderness, and the smallness of the number of 
those who would undertake an exodus from Egypt at 
all. His countrymen had long remained in bondage 
to hoary errors ; they, with characteristic Oriental con- 
servatism, were slow to change. Not only was the dis- 
tance great between them and the glorious goal ahead, 
but those who did attempt the march forward walked 
feebly and falteringly; they crept like the tortoise, 
while their leader wanted them to run like the hare, 
and they often turned backward; then when the true 
import and full significance of his mission was made 
known to them, many deserted his standard and grieved 
him with their apostacy for filthy lucre's sake. This 
was gall and wormwood to his spirit; it pained him 
deeply. When he was misinterpreted and reviled he 
never answered back in anger, but his heart was sore, 
and, with a gentle and pitiful contempt, he lost faith 



LECTUKE XIV. 293 

in humanity, esteeming a people hardly worth saving if 
they would not save themselves. 

We think no better simile of the efforts of Confucius 
can be shown us than the spectacle of a young, energetic 
man catching sight of a glorious range of mountains, 
from the snow-capped, light-crowned peaks of which a 
view of the most gorgeous and extensive scenery can 
be obtained. The day is fine, the air bracing, the sun 
brightly shining; it is early morn, the birds are just 
pouring forth their matin praise; the youth is strong 
and refreshed for labor, and so near seem the hills, he 
thinks he can gain not only their base, but reach their 
summits before nightfall. But, alas for him, he has 
altogether miscalculated the distance between him and 
them, and still further has he underrated the length of 
the journey from base to summit, and the exceeding 
difficulty of the way. Day after day and night after 
night go by ; he wearies on the road, sinks to sleep 
one night with the mountains out of sight because be- 
clouded with mist, and thinks at last that he has been 
a fool for his pains in striving to reach what must, after 
all, be but a mirage in the desert. After a sleep unusu- 
ally profound and refreshing, he wakes to find them 
close at hand. He has traveled further than he knew 
in the days of mist and shadow, when their dim outlines 
were scarcely discernible, and at length, after days in- 
stead of hours of effort, he finds the mountains there in 
greater size and grandeur than any far-off prospect 
could reveal. 

Confucius could never know how far along the road 
he had himself traveled, or how many others he had in- 



294 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

duced to undertake the forward march, till the clearer 
light of immortality, after physical dissolution, awoke 
within him in that realm of revelation where his doubt- 
ing but ever faithful spirit grasped with an unyielding 
grip the truth of optimism. A soul so noble could 
never have been disappointed after death, whatever 
set-backs he may have encountered on this side of Jor- 
dan. His closing hours were marked by peaceful resig- 
nation and tender, loving solicitude for the well-being 
of his country, yea, the world at large, though he made 
special efforts to secure the well-being of his own beloved 
children. No more loving father, no more powerful 
moralist, no more faithful man ever trod the earth : 
but he had not the all-conquering power of Jesus to 
abolish death and triumph so gloriously over its domin- 
ion as to make his death the door of hope to all who 
should read of it. 

As to the moral and social condition of the Chinese 
Empire, there are two sides to every question. Wong 
Chin Foo is evidently a patriot, — in some senses a par- 
tisan, — and therefore not an altogether disinterested 
witness, but we believe him when he says crime is less 
frequent in China than in England and America. The 
much-lauded and decidedly overestimated civilization 
of the West loses much when its restless mammon- 
worship is contrasted with the reposeful stolidity of 
Eastern peoples. A careful comparison of Oriental 
religions, and a further acquaintance with the actual 
condition of Asiatics cannot but knock some of the 
conceit out of those pretenders to a monopoly of cul- 
ture and revelation who calmly imagine Europe and 



LECTURE XIV. 295 

America terrestrial paradises, while Asia and Africa are 
to them purgatories, if not infernal dominions. 

Without adopting the Christian name, we can end 
this lecture with the words, " Come to Jesus." We do 
not invite our readers to Christianity, but to that sim- 
ple gospel of love proclaimed by its alleged founder. 
To Wong Chin Foo we do not say, Abandon Confu- 
cianism ; for there is no Christian society he would be 
improved by joining ; but we do say to him (and per- 
haps he does not need the advice — he may have 
already done so), Study carefully the ethics of the 
Sermon on the Mount, and you may become a mission- 
ary to Christians in their own land. You have been 
rather severe on the Unitarians, but scarcely too much 
so on any other denomination. Spiritualism, as it is at 
this time usually presented, might repel rather than 
attract you, and possibly Theosophy may be too mys- 
tical in its appearance to invite your examination. You 
evidently are desirous of seeing established in America 
a universal practical religion of good and noble deeds, 
without cant and without dissimulation. You can find 
in the ethics of Judaism, and also in the gospel utter- 
ances (which are, as Benjamin D'Israeli always said, 
but an amplification of the Hebrew religion) exactly 
the material you need to work upon. We are all 
deeply indebted to you for your scathing though mer- 
ited tirade against hypocrisy, and trust the American 
people will so far follow your good advice as to live by 
all the good there is in the Confucian philosophy, and, 
not resting there, harmonize their lives with the yet 
more spiritual teachings of the prophet of Galilee. 



296 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Thus may they develop a truly theosophical religion, 
to which no Confucian, Brahman, Parsee, Buddhist, or 
any other Oriental need take the slightest exception ; 
for Theosophy is free universal religion (not creedism) 
in the broadest meaning of the phrase. 



LECTURE XV. 

ELECTRICAL CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY ; ELECTRICITY 
THE BASIS OF LIFE ; AN ELECTRIC CREED ; ELEC- 
TRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 

In approaching the subject of electricity in this age 
of marvelous and ever-multiplying electrical inventions 
and appliances, we are led to inquire whether, despite 
all the control which man is seemingly gaining over 
the electric fluid, electricity is not, after all, the sover- 
eign master instead of the obedient servant. A very 
wonderful and truly theosophical book, "A Romance 
of Two Worlds," by Marie Corelli, continues to circu- 
late widely all over America as well as in England, 
where it was originally published. The authoress is 
evidently a woman of sincere and noble convictions, 
and uses her facile pen and unusual ability as a novel- 
ist, to convey to the minds of her readers something 
like an adequate idea of the stupendous power inherent 
in a force about which so few really know anything. 
Dr. Moli£re of San Francisco, and other truly eminent 
physicians who do honor to the profession they adorn, 
are in exact agreement with Marie Corelli, in declaring 
it to be their conviction that electricity is the one only 
vital force in nature ; that it can be gathered from the 
atmosphere and returned to the earth, but is never gen- 



298 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

erated and never destroyed. Dr. Scott, whose various 
inventions have made his name known everywhere, no 
doubt tells a great truth through the instrumentality 
of a hair-brush, when he makes that common toilet 
accessory declare on its back, which holds a battery, 
" the germ of all life is electricity." To many who read 
these words, an idea is at once erroneously conveyed, 
that if this be so, there can be no spiritual basis of life, 
for electricity is generally regarded as a blind force 
utterly distinct from everything we can call mind, soul, 
or spirit. Such, however, is not the case ; this subtle 
all-pervading force is in its essence purely spiritual, and 
flows through all the kingdoms and forms of nature 
as their life-giving principle, or nothing could exist. 
We cannot affirm that what we are accustomed to call 
electricity is other than a manifestation of spirit, a 
phenomenal display of the unitary life-principle which 
pervades the universe ; it is indeed the sole agent em- 
ployed by intelligence itself in its expressions through 
the varied and numberless fields of nature. As it is 
part of the object of this volume to review standard 
works bearing on Theosophy, in the broad acceptance 
of the word, we will here introduce extracts from " A 
Romance of Two Worlds," appending such comments 
of our own as we may find necessary to insure our read- 
ers' understanding of our own attitude to this extraor- 
dinary revelation, — for revelation it is; and a reve- 
lation, moreover, peculiarly timely when electricity is 
everywhere the subject of thought and experimentation. 
As we cannot do more than briefly allude to any one 
book, no matter how valuable its contents, owing to 



LECTUEE XV. 299 

our limited space, we shall present our readers with 
only such extracts from Marie Corelli's priceless con- 
tribution to literature as seem to us of special interest 
and importance to students of Theosophy, which means 
for us the all in all of spiritual revelation. 

From the Introduction to the 50-cent edition of " A 
Romance of Two Worlds," published by Ivers & Co., New 
York, we extract the following sublime utterances : — 

In spite of the doctrines of agnostics and materialists, there is 
a perpetual, passionate craving in the souls of many for that in- 
ward peace and absolute content which can only be obtained by a 
perfect faith in God and the coming Life Eternal. Materialism 
does not and can never still the hunger of the Immortal Spirit in 
man for those things divine, which are, by right, its heritage. 
Nothing on earth can soothe or console it — nothing temporal can 
long delight it — in time the best gifts the world can offer seem 
valueless ; while one spark of God's own essence remains alit within 
us, it is impossible that here, on this limited plane of thought and 
action, we should ever be satisfied. I do not address myself to 
those who have forsaken all spirituality — who have made their 
cold adieux to God, and who, of their own free will and choice, lie 
down in dust and ashes, with foolish faces turned earthward and 
hidden from the light — to them I say pitifully, " Requiescat in 
pace ! " for they are as though they were not. It is to those who 
feel the quick stirrings of a larger, grander life within them — who 
realize with love and eagerness the wonders of the world to come, 
and who gaze appealingly across the darkness of present things, 
striving to see, no matter how distantly, the first faint glimmer of 
the brightness that glitters beyond the grave — to these I speak, 
inadequately and feebly I know, yet with all my soul desiring to 
cheer them, as they climb from steep to steep of high thought and 
noble endeavor, onward and upward. 

The " Eomance " has since its appearance been made the subject 
of much discussion ; and I, as its author, have had to submit to a 
great deal of cross-questioning concerning its theories. I have been 



300 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

brought into contact with many peculiar phases of thought and 
feeling relating to occultism and clairvoyance, and people of all 
shades of opinion seek my acquaintance in the expectation of being 
initiated into something very strange and mysterious — let me say, 
something vulgarly melodramatic — concerning the spiritual world. 
Their disappointment is always extreme when they learn that my 
creed has its foundation in Christ alone, and that I date my spir- 
itual growth in this world from that one Light, containing in itself 
both the divine and human essence of absolute power, wisdom and 
purity. " Only Christ ! " is the look plainly expressed in their faces ; 
and they turn from me altogether puzzled and dissatisfied. Were 
I to initiate them — or rather pretend to initiate them — into some 
new or old form of Buddhism — could I show them some poor trick- 
ery such as the vanishing of a box in the air, the turning of a red 
flower to white, or white to red, or any of the optical illusions prac- 
ticed with such skill by native conjurers, I might easily be sur- 
rounded by disciples of " Occultism " — persons who are generally 
ready, nay, even eager, to be deceived. But " Only Christ ! " — only 
the old, old story of Divine Love and Sacrifice ! — how tame and 
trivial! No skipping about of chairs and tables — no "demateri- 
alization of matter " — no jumping through a ceiling without mak- 
ing a hole in it — not even a sideboard possessed of voluntary voli- 
tion — no excitement — no incipient madness — nothing but the 
well-worn doctrines of Christ which have been dinned into our 
ears from childhood — how shall anything new come of these ? 

Many have eagerly asked me : " How can we perform miracles ? " 
"Can we see visions ?" "How are we to cultivate the electric 
Spirit within us ? " I have only one reply to make to these " search- 
ers after the unseen " : it is this — " With God all things are possi- 
ble." W T ithout Him, nothing is possible. The power of performing 
miracles, the gifts of healing and prophecy, and the ability to see 
beyond the things of this world, are all obtainable, but only through 
absolute faith in Christ. The smallest hesitation, the least grain 
of that insolent and foolish pride which dares to deny the very ex- 
istence of the Creator, the faintest shadow of self-seeking or self- 
love, and the inner spiritual force is instantly paralyzed. It cannot 
be too strongly impressed on the minds of those interested in this 



LECTURE XV. 301 

high question, that nothing temporal, however pleasant, brings any 
gratification or advantage to the Soul. While pent up in clay it is a 
cramped and prisoned creature, and unless fed with the divine and 
heating influences of unselfish love, unswerving faith, high aspira- 
tions and pure devotion, it starves and dwindles down to so feeble 
a flame that, w^hen the body in which it has passed such a miser- 
able existence perishes, it is forced to seek elsewhere for some fresh 
chance of development. I have explained this fully in the " Electric 
Creed " which, I may here observe, has been much commented upon, 
and by some deemed blasphemous — I know not why. Its tenets 
are completely borne out by the New Testament, which sacred little 
book, however, has much of its mystical and true meaning obscured 
nowadays through the indifference of those who read, and the 
apathy of those who hear. Sunday after Sunday its noble pas- 
sages are drawled or droned forth by clergymen who have ceased 
to put any life or soul into their manner of utterance, and most of 
whom look upon their sacred vocation merely as a means of liveli- 
hood. Their congregations appear to listen, but in truth their 
thoughts are far away — they have "heard it so often," they mur- 
mur, with an apologetic yawn. The words, " Because iniquity shall 
abound, the love of many shall wax cold," fall on dull and inatten- 
tive ears : the people are unconscious that in themselves they are 
fulfilling that prophecy as well as this : " Seeing, they shall not 
see; and hearing, they shall not understand. . . ." 

True spiritual progress and knowledge are shown in the cheerful, 
sincere, and wholesome life of the person possessing it, and in the en- 
couraging and ennobling influence that life has on the lives of others. 
Moreover, it is displayed in the buoyancy and tireless energy of the 
body in which the beautiful, expanding, highly destined Spirit is for a 
time bidden to work — in the brightness and serenity of the eye, the 
absence of all depression, the contentment and tranquillity of the dispo- 
sition and temper. Hypnotism, which is merely animal magnetism 
called by a new name, and which is nothing but a physical attraction 
of strong bodies brought to bear on weakly, diseased, or passive ones, 
has nothing whatever in common with what 1 may designate spiritual 
electric force. The professor of hypnotism is able on certain occa- 
sions to instil a thought into the mind of his patient, and force 



302 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

him (or her — it is generally a feeble woman who is the subject 
practiced upon) to act upon it; pain may be soothed, and long 
trances may ensue, but this power is only temporary. The trance 
of hypnotism is a stupor, — in it the patient sees nothing worth 
remembering, even if he could remember, which he never does. 
This is a positive sign that hypnotism pertains to the material 
side of existence, and has nothing to do with the spiritual. Many 
persons — particularly women — who are highly nervous and in a 
debilitated condition of mind and body, imagine their state of 
chronic hysteria to be one of supernatural inspiration ; and several 
such overwrought beings have been introduced to me as " wonderful 
spiritualists," whereas they are only sickly and morbid. True Spir- 
itualism is above all things healthy ; it places the human being in a fear- 
less, noble attitude toward both God and Man, and nothing but benefits 
can accrue from it . . . 

The miracles of Christ were emanations of pitying love and entire 
unselfishness , performed solely for the benefit or relief of others, with' 
out ostentation or pretense at mystery. 

I once asked an ardent Buddhist the reason of his -preference 
for Buddhism to Christianity. He hesitated a little, then said: 
" Oh, I don't know ! Anything for a change ! " After this, who 
could doubt the sincerity of his convictions? Certainly, if ever 
there was a time for a new apostle of Christ to arise and preach 
His grandly simple message anew that time is now. Such a one 
should belong to no Church, for in the 'multitude of churches and their 
differing and, unhappily, quarrelsome sects, Christ is crucified over and 
over again, and made to die a thousand shameful deaths. The old 
forms of preaching do not move the minds of the present genera- 
tion. There needs fresh fire, more touching eloquence, more earnest- 
ness of purpose. And the light of Science must be brought to bear 
on the New Testament, in which its glorious pages will grow bright 
with hitherto unguessed mystical meanings if humbly and prayer- 
fully studied. I have often wondered at the density of preachers who, 
in accordance with the established rule of their order, keep on telling 
their congregations to " save their soids," without making the slightest 
attempt to explain what the Soul is. The people taken en masse are 
never brought to realize the fact of the imperishable inner Self 



LECTURE XV. 303 

within each one of them — that actual Selfiohich claims as much and 
more sustenance than the outer body on which we spend such a supera- 
bundance of care — care which avails nothing at death, while the atten- 
tion bestowed on the deathless part of us avails everything. The world 
is growing surely tired of monotonous sermons on the old Jewish 
doctrine of original sin and necessary sacrifice. Most truly did 
Christ declare, "In -vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine 
the commandments of men" 

And, as has been set forth in the " Electric Creed,'' Christ did 
not come to us as a Sacrifice, but as a means of close communica- 
tion with God. i" consider it both horrible and sacrilegious to imagine 
that God, the Creator of Love and Beauty, could desire a bleeding vic- 
tim as a sacrifice to appease His anger, and that Victim part of Him- 
self imprisoned in human form — as if God could feel such an un- 
ivorthy passion as anger! Sorrow, pity, desire to draw the love of even 
so small a part of His creation as this earth nearer to His Infinite Pro- 
tection — these emotions are God-like, and are all displayed in the per- 
son of His Christ This is why I venture to say that the time has 
come for a new form of preaching, that shall show the Gospel to 
be one of Love, not Fear. Not because, coward-like, we are afraid 
to displease God, should we endeavor to purify our lives, but be- 
cause we know and feel we have a spark of His essence in ourselves 
that attracts us to Him (and therefore to all goodness) by the force 
of pure Love alone. Not because we would shun future punish- 
ment or desire future joy, but because we know we are akin to 
Him and He to us, and in that marvelous affinity feel that we 
would rather perish forever than wrong by so much as a thought 
the Supremely Beloved. This, it seems to me, is Christianity as 
Christ meant it : Unselfish love for the Creator, the corresponding 
cord of which must be unselfish love for all he has created ; love 
radiating like broad sunbeams everywhere without grudge or stint ; 
love for one's fellow-creatures ; love for the birds and flowers and 
all the wise and wonderful workings of nature ; love, the first and 
best nourishment of the spirit within us, which, fed thus, responds 
like a vibrating harp string to the smallest hint from the Divine 
master-hand ; love which looks beyond the veil of temporal things, 
and sees clearly with most bright and undazzled eyes j love which 



304 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

is endowed with perfect faith, because, being part of God, it can- 
not doubt God's existence. And to the immortal spirit pos- 
sessed of this love, all things are possible — all miracles, all gifts 
of healing and high influence. But without it all spiritual research 
is utterly useless. ... 

The distinguishing mark of the true Spiritualist is what I may 
call Self-rejection. Self stands on one side, as it were, and is no 
longer allowed to obscure the soul's view of the splendid universe 
to which it belongs. And I affirm, and will most ardently main- 
tain, that in the teachings of Christ will be found all the secrets 
of occult science, all the keynotes of the myriad, upward-sounding 
scales of the highest active spirituality — spirituality that has noth- 
ing to do with a morbid imagination and a debilitated or diseased 
physical frame, but that, on the contrary, is strong and calm, use- 
ful and beneficial wherever it works ; cheering, strengthening, en- 
couraging, and ennobling all with whom it is brought in contact, 
and leaving men and women better, happier, and purer for its in- 
fluence. Such spirituality, the outcome of the electric spirit of 
Divinity in man, corresponding to the supreme center of Divinity 
in the Creator, can see and converse with angels ■ — can heal the 
sick and console the afflicted — can preserve health in the body 
and beauty in the face and form — can even retain youth much 
longer than materialists dream of — can meet misfortune as though 
it were joy, and can triumph in death, knowing Death to be but 
this world's name for Life. 

The idea of Eternity, as depicted in the " Electric Ring encom- 
passing God's World " contained in that part of the " Romance " 
called " A Miniature Creation," has been for the most part passed 
over by those who have reviewed my book in the columns of the 
press, and it is to this I wish briefly to draw the attention of my 
readers. The Ring is described as perpetually creative and perpetu- 
ally absorbent. Planets are from time to time drawn within it and 
again cast forth from it, and of this tremendous electric Force 
there can be no end, inasmuch as it is the outer circle or atmos- 
phere of the Central Planet of all planets wherein the Creator has 
His being. The theory is simple, yet by it all the gigantic and 
minute marvels of the universe are made easy of comprehension — 



LECTURE XV. 305 

as easy as the explanation of the main-spring of a watch, though 
an untutored savage would find a watch most difficult to under- 
stand. But to the mechanician who has put the watch together 
and knows how to wind it up, there is no mystery in the seemingly 
intricate work; and we, who consider ourselves wise, especially 
when we are called scientists — we who, in the insolent littleness 
of our limited thought, sometimes presume to dismiss the Creator 
as no part of His creation — we shall in the hereafter wake up from 
the troubled dream we call living, to the fact that the great Chro- 
nometer of the Universe is quite a simple thing — so simple that we 
shall wonder at ourselves for not reading its apparent secret before. 
As the wise king wrote : " The thoughts of mortal men are misera- 
ble, and their devices are but uncertain. For the corruptible body 
presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down 
the mind that museth upon many things. And hardly do we guess 
aright the things that are upon earth, and with labor do we find 
the things that are before our eyes; but the things that are in 
heaven who hath searched out? Except Thou give wisdom and 
send Thy Holy Spirit from above" 

I have lately been accused by a leading critic of " imagining a 
new heaven and earth, and passionately flinging them in the teeth 
of an obstinate reality that will not conform to them." But I 
have imagined no theory of which the starting-point cannot be 
found in the Scriptures, and the only "obstinate reality " I am 
aware of in this world is death, to which, undoubtedly, all things 
must conform. Therefore I hope I do " passionately fling into the 
teeth of that obstinate reality " my glad, grateful, and full belief in 
the future existence — the coming life of perfect joy, love, and 
beauty — a life which alone is worth working for, hoping for, pray- 
ing for, — and compared to which, in my eyes at least, this earth 
seems but a sort of eclipse — a black disk, obscuring for a time the 
desired and desirable sunlight — a passing cloud, the movement of 
which I note with a certain impatience, accepting its shadow, as it 
falls on my soul, not as an " obstinate reality," but simply as shadow 
through which sometimes — by the way of the Cross — the light of 
the veiled Glory shines. Makie Corelli _ 



306 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

The following equally beautiful, powerful, and ex- 
ceedingly apposite words at this juncture in the world's 
thought are from the Prologue : — 

We live in an age of universal inquiry, ergo of universal skepti- 
cism. The prophecies of the poet, the dreams of the philosopher 
and scientist, are being daily realized — things formerly considered 
mere fairy-tales have become facts — yet, in spite of the marvels of 
learning and science that are hourly accomplished among us, the 
attitude of mankind is one of disbelief. " There is no God ! " cries 
one theorist ; " or if there be one, I can obtain no proof of His 
existence ! " "* There is no Creator ! " exclaims another. " The 
Universe is simply a rushing together of atoms." " There can be 
no Immortality," asserts a third. " We are but dust, and to dust 
we shall return." " What is called by idealists the Soul," argues 
another, "is simply the vital principle composed of heat and air, 
which escapes from the body at death, and mingles again with its 
native element. A candle when lit emits flame ; blow out the light, 
the flame vanishes — where ? Would it not be madness to assert 
the flame immortal? Yet the soul, or vital principle of human 
existence, is no more than the flame of a candle." 

If you propound to these theorists the eternal question why ? — 
why is the world in existence ? why is there a universe ? why do we 
live ? why do we think and plan ? why do we perish at the last ? — 
their grandiose reply is, " Because of the Law of Universal Neces- 
sity." They cannot explain this mysterious Law to themselves, nor 
can they probe deep enough to find the answer to a still more tre- 
mendous why — namely, Why is there a Law of Universal Neces- 
sity ? — but they are satisfied with the result of their reasonings, if 
not wholly, yet in part, and seldom try to search beyond that great 
vague vast Necessity, lest their finite brains should reel into mad- 
ness worse than death. Recognizing, therefore, that in this culti- 
vated age a wall of skepticism and cynicism is gradually being 
built up by intellectual thinkers of every nation against all that 
treats of the Supernatural and Unseen, I am aware that my narra- 
tion of the events I have recently experienced will be read with 
incredulity. At a time when the great empire of the Christian 



LECTURE XV. 307 

Religion is being assailed, or politely ignored by governments and 
public speakers and teachers, I realize to the fullest extent how 
daring is any attempt to prove, even by a plain history of strange 
occurrences happening to one's self, the actual existence of the 
Supernatural around us ; and the absolute certainty of a future 
state of being, after the passage through that brief soul-torpor in 
which the body perishes, known to us as Death. 

In the present narration, which I have purposely called a " ro- 
mance," I do not expect to be believed, as I can only relate what I 
myself have experienced. I know that men and women of to-day 
must have proofs, or what they are willing to accept as proofs, be- 
fore they will credit anything that purports to be of a spiritual 
tendency, — something startling — some miracle of a stupendous 
nature, such as according to prophecy they are all unfit to receive. 
Few will admit the subtle influence and incontestable, though 
mysterious, authority exercised upon their lives by higher* intelli- 
gences than their own — intelligences unseen, unknown, but felt. 
Yes! felt by the most careless, the most cynical; in the uncom- 
fortable prescience of danger, the inner forebodings of guilt — the 
moral and mental torture endured by those who fight a protracted 
battle to gain the hardly-won victory in themselves of right over 
wrong — in the thousand and one sudden appeals made without 
warning to that compass of a man's life, Conscience — and in those 
brilliant and startling impulses of generosity, bravery, and self- 
sacrifice which carry us on, heedless of consequences, to the per- 
formance of great and noble deeds, whose fame makes the whole 
world one resounding echo of glory — deeds that we wonder at 
ourselves even in the performance of them — acts of heroism in 
which mere life goes for nothing, and the Soul for a brief space 
is pre-eminent, obeying blindly the guiding influence of a some- 
thing akin to itself, yet higher in the realms of Thought. 

We have not space to review the amazing story which 
follows the truly remarkable introduction of which the 
foregoing extracts give a good idea. The authoress 
proceeds to relate how the heroine of the romance 



308 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

was completely restored to health from a condition of 
extreme and protracted debility by spiritual electric 
methods. The narrative is delightfully told, and carries 
the reader with it from first to last. The scenes are 
laid first in Italy, then in Paris. In Paris the heroine 
meets a wonderful electrician, by name " Heliobas," 
who lives in a beautiful house fitted up with every 
conceivable electrical appliance for health, comfort, 
and beauty. His only sister, to whom he is tenderly 
attached, lives with him. Between her and Marie 
Corelli's charming heroine a warm friendship springs 
up, which continues to increase till the gifted "Zara" 
passes to the invisible world. Her exit from the mortal 
body is electric, as everything of importance is through- 
out the story. After her departure from the mortal 
form, she shows herself in immortal beauty to her 
sorrow-stricken friend, who, immediately after the vis- 
ion, carries tidings to Heliobas, who is being misjudged 
and cruelly insulted by a man of the world, who had 
been an unwelcome aspirant for Zara's hand in marriage, 
and who, after her tragic transition, heaped reproaches 
upon the noble and faithful brother, between whom 
and his sister nothing but the most loyal and loving 
confidence had ever existed. 

As might be expected in a work of such exception- 
ally pure tone and ennobling sentiment as "A Romance 
of Two Worlds," the young lady who had been the 
recipient of a message from her ascended friend, suc- 
ceeded by the sheer force of spiritual truth and dignity 
to quell all disturbance, and make peace between the 
two men, one of whom was so sorely tried, the other so 



LECTURE XV. 309 

unspeakably exasperating. We affirm such incidents 
are true to life, in our own experience, though but 
rarely we have met grand natures whose royalty of 
soul and spiritual conquest over usual earthly limita- 
tions made them invincible when standing for right, 
protesting against error. Skeptics who know nothing 
of consecration to high ideals may laugh to scorn the 
testimony of the ages to the invincible power of right 
when supremely trusted in, and courageously upheld, 
as those who know not what real prayer means may 
revile that potent agent of spiritual strength and conso- 
lation, which is an incessant and most faithful source of 
lasting good to those who employ it; but, despite the 
mockery of the profane and the cynicism of the con- 
temptuous, in the midst of humanity to-day, spiritual 
works are putting to shame all the devices of iniquity, 
and the true spiritual worker, be it ever remembered, 
may be a strong man, a delicate woman, or a little 
child. Power belongs not to coarse animal organisms 
which generate in copious measure what is generally 
and appropriately termed animal magnetism, — a physical 
force possessed by beasts as well as men, — but to a force 
beyond all physical discernment or discovery, the power 
of the electric spirit of divinity in man ; when this is 
acknowledged and brought into requisition, the mys- 
teries of Christian Science, Mind Healing, etc., etc., 
will all be made plain, and the excellences of opposing 
systems be found in the truth that not what a person 
believes or professes, but what he is, enables him to 
accomplish whatever good he works for humanity in 
seemingly mysterious ways. Teaching is always useful; 



310 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

those who proclaim truth, even if they live it not, are 
intellectual benefactors of the race, for they are venti- 
lating knowledge, and thereby assisting inquiring minds 
that need a ministry which appeals to reason ; but those 
who would be practically, personally endowed with 
healing grace must live continually so as to cultivate 
the divine and overcome the animal within them. This 
essential truth runs through all Marie Corelli's writ- 
ings, entitling her to high rank as a spiritual helper of 
mankind. 

We will now present our readers with some extracts 
from " The Electric Creed " which the heroine received 
in manuscript as a gift from Heliobas : — 

From all Eternity God, or the Supreme Spirit of Light, existed, 
and to all Eternity He will continue to exist. This is plainly 
stated in the New Testament thus : " God is a Spirit, and they 
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." 

He is a Shape of pure Electric Radiance. Those who may be 
inclined to doubt this may search the Scriptures on which they pin 
their faith, and they will find that all the visions and appearances 
of the Deity there chronicled were electric in character. 

As a poet forms poems, or a musician melodies, so God formed 
by a Thought the Vast Central Sphere in which He dwells, and 
peopled it with the pure creations of His glorious fancy. And 
why ? Because, being pure Light, He is also pure Love ; the power 
or capacity of Love implies the necessity of Loving; the necessity 
of loving points to the existence of things to be loved — hence the 
secret of creation. From the ever- working Intelligence of this 
Divine Love proceeded the Electric Circle of the Universe, from 
whence are born all worlds. 

This truth vaguely dawned upon the ancient poets of Scripture 
when they wrote : " Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And 
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God 
said, Let there be light. And there was light." 



LECTURE XV, 311 

These words apply solely to the creation or production of our 
own Earth, and in them we read nothing but a simple manifesta- 
tion of electricity, consisting in a heating passage of rays from the 
Central Circle to the planet newly propelled forth from it, which 
caused that planet to produce and multiply the wonders of the 
animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms which we call Nature. 

Let us now turn again to the poet-prophets of Scripture : " And 
God said, Let us make man in our image." The word "our" here 
implies an instinctive idea that God was never alone. This idea is 
correct. Love cannot exist in a chaos ; and God by the sheer ne- 
cessity of His Being has forever been surrounded by radiant and 
immortal Spirits emanating from His own creative glory — beings 
in whom all beauty and all purity are found. In the images, there- 
fore (only the images'), of these Children of Light and of Himself, 
He made Man — that is, He caused the Earth to be inhabited and 
dominated by beings composed of Earth's component parts, animal, 
vegetable, and mineral, giving them their superiority by placing 
within them His " likeness " in the form of an electric flame or germ 
of spiritual existence combined with its companion working-force 
of Will-power. 

Like all flames, this electric spark can either be fanned into a 
fire or it can be allowed to escape into air — it can never be de- 
stroyed. It can be fostered and educated till it becomes a living 
Spiritual Form of absolute beauty — an immortal creature of 
thought, memory, emotion, and working intelligence. If, on the 
contrary, it is neglected or forgotten, and its companion Will is 
drawn by the weight of Earth to work for earthly aims alone, then 
it escapes and seeks other chances of development in other forms on 
other planets, while the body it leaves, supported only by physical sus- 
tenance drawn from the earth on which it dwells, becomes a mere lump 
of clay animated by mere animal life solely, full of inward ignorance 
and corruption and outward incapacity. Of such material are the • 
majority of men composed by their own free will and choice, because 
they habitually deaden the voice of conscience and refuse to believe 
in the existence of a spiritual element within and around them. 

To resume : the Earth is one of the smallest of planets ; and not 
only this, but, from its position in the Universe, receives a less 



312 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

amount of direct influence from the Electric Circle than other 
worlds more happily situated. Were men wise enough to accept 
this fact, they would foster to the utmost the germs of electric 
sympathy within themselves, in order to form a direct communica- 
tion, or system of attraction, between this planet and the ever- 
widening Ring, so that some spiritual benefit might accrue to them 
thereby. But as the ages roll on, their chances of doing this dimin- 
ish. The time is swiftly approaching when the invincible Law of 
Absorption shall extinguish Earth as easily as we blow out the 
flame of a candle. True, it may be again reproduced, and again 
thrown out on space ; but then it will be in a new and grander 
form, and will doubtless have more godlike inhabitants. . . . 

Christ's death was not a sacrifice ; it was simply a means of 
confidence and communion with the Creator. A sinless Spirit 
suffered to show us how to suffer ; lived on earth to show us how 
to live ; prayed to show us how to pray ; died to show us how to 
die ; rose again to impress strongly upon us that there was in truth 
a life beyond this one, for which He strove to prepare our souls. 
Finally, by His re-ascension into Heaven He established that much 
needed electric communication between us and the Central Sphere. 

It can be proved from the statements of the New Testament 
that in Christ was an Embodied Electric Spirit. From first to last 
His career was attended by electric phenomena, of which eight ex- 
amples are here quoted; and earnest students of the matter can 
find many others if they choose to examine for themselves. 

1. The appearance of the Star and the Vision of Angels on the 
night of His birth. The Chaldeans saw His "star in the east," and 
they came to worship Him. The Chaldeans were always a learned 
people, and electricity was an advanced science with them. They 
at once recognized the star to be no new planet, but simply a star- 
shaped flame flitting through space. They knew what this meant. 
Observe, too, that they had no doubts upon the point ; they came 
" to worship Him" and provided themselves with gifts to offer to 
this radiant Guest, the offspring of pure Light. The vision of the 
angels appearing to the shepherds was simply a joyous band of the 
Singing Children of the Electric King, who out of pure interest 
and pleasure floated in sight of Earth, drawn thither partly by the 



LECTURE XV. 313 

already strong attractive influence of the Radiance that was impris- 
oned there in the form of the Babe of Bethlehem. 

2. When Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, " the heavens 
opened." 

3. The sympathetic influence of Christ was so powerful that 
when He selected His disciples, He had but to speak to them, and 
at the sound of His voice, though they were engaged in other busi- 
ness, " they left all and folloived Him" 

4. Christ's body was charged with electricity. Thus he was 
easily able to heal sick and diseased persons by a touch or a look. 
The woman who caught at His garment in the crowd was cured of 
her long-standing ailment ; and we see that Christ was aware of 
His own electric force by the words He used on that occasion : 
" Who touched Me f For 1 feel that some virtue is gone out of Me " — 
which is the exact feeling that a physical electrician experiences at 
this day after employing his powers on a subject. The raising of 
Jairus's daughter, of the widow's son at Nain, and of Lazarus, were 
all accomplished by the same means. 

5. The walking on the sea was a purely electric effort, and can be 
accomplished now by any one who has cultivated sufficient inner force. 
The sea being full of electric particles will support anybody suffi- 
ciently and similarly charged — the two currents combining to 
procure the necessary equilibrium. Peter, who was able to walk 
a little way, lost his power directly his will became vanquished by 
fear- — because the sentiment of fear disperses electricity, and being 
a purely human emotion, does away with spiritual strength for the 
time. 

6. The Death of Christ was attended by electric manifestations 
— by the darkness over the land during the Crucifixion ; the tear- 
ing of the temple veil in twain ; and the earthquake which finally 
ensued. 

7. The Resurrection was a most powerful display of electric 
force. It will be remembered that the angel who was found sitting 
at the entrance of the empty sepulcher " had a countenance like 
lightning" i.e. like electric flame. It must also be called to mind 
how the risen Christ addressed Mary Magdalene : " Touch Me not, 
for I am but newly risen ! " Why should she not have touched 



314 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Him ? Simply because His strength then was the strength of con- 
centrated in-rushing currents of electricity ; and to touch Him at 
that moment would have been for Magdalene instant death by 
lightning. This effect of embodied electric force has been shad- 
owed forth in the Greek legend of Apollo, w T hose glory consumed 
at a breath the mortal who dared to look upon him. 

8. The descent of the Holy Ghost, by which term is meant an 
ever-flowing current of the inspired working Intelligence of the 
Creator, was purely electric in character : " Suddenly there came 
a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all 
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire , and sat upon each of them." It may 
here be noted that the natural electric flame is dual or " cloven " in 
shape. 

For those who have once become aware of the existence of the Cen- 
tral Sphere and of the Electric Ring surrounding it, and who are able 
to realize to the full the gigantic as well as minute work performed by 
the electric waves around us and within us, there can no longer be any 
doubt as to all the facts of Christianity, as none of them, viewed 
by the electric theory, are otherwise than in accordance with the 
Creator's love and sympathy with even the smallest portion of His 
creation. 

Why then, if Christianity be a Divine Truth, are not all people 
Christians ? As well ask, if music and poetry are good things, why 
all men are not poets and musicians. Art seeks art ; in like man- 
ner God seeks God — that is, He seeks portions of His own essence 
among His creatures. Christ Himself said, " Many are called, but 
few are chosen " ; and it stands to reason that very few souls will 
succeed in becoming pure enough to enter the Central Sphere with- 
out hindrance. Many, on leaving Earth, will be detained in the 
Purgatory of Air, where thousands of spirits work for ages, watch- 
ing over others, helping and warning others, and in this unselfish 
labor succeed in raising themselves, little by little, higher and 
ever higher, till they at last reach the longed-for goal. It must also 
be remembered that not only from Earth but from all worlds, re- 
leased souls seek to attain final happiness in the Central Sphere 
w T here God is ; so that, however great the number of those that are 



LECTURE XV. 315 

permitted to proceed thither from this little planet, they can only 
form, as it were, one drop in a mighty ocean. . . . 

Regarding the Electric Theory of Religion, it is curious to ob- 
serve how the truth of it has again and again been dimly shadowed 
forth in the prophecies of Art, Science, and Poesy. The old paint- 
ers who depicted a halo of light round the head of their Virgins 
and Saints did so out of a correct impulse which they did not 
hesitate to obey. 1 The astronomers who, after years' study, have 
been enabled to measure the flames of the burning sun, and to 
find out that these are from two to four thousand miles high, are 
nearly arrived at the conclusion that it is a world in a state of 
conflagration, in which they will be perfectly right. Those who 
hold that this Earth of ours was once self-luminous are also right ; 
for it was indeed so when first projected from the Electric Ring. 
All art, all prophecy, all poesy, should therefore be accepted eagerly 
and studied earnestly, for in them we find electric inspiration, out 
of which we are able to draw lessons for our guidance hereafter. 
The great point that scientists and artists have hitherto failed to 
discover is the existence of the Central Sphere and its Surrounding 
Electric Circle. Once realize these two great facts, and all the 
wonders and mysteries of the Universe are perfectly easy of com- 
prehension. 

In conclusion, I offer no opinion as to which is Christ's Church, 
or the Fountain-head of Spirituality in the world. In all Churches 
errors have intruded through unworthy and hypocritical members. 
In a crowded congregation of worshipers there may perhaps be 
only one or two who are free from self-interest and personal vanity. 
In Sectarianism, for instance, there is no shred of Christianity. 
Lovers of God and followers of Christ must, in the first place, have 
perfect Unity; and the bond uniting them must be an electric 
one of love and faith. No true Christian should be able to hate, 
despise, or envy the other. ... 

Now I beseech the reader of this manuscript to which I, Helio- 
bas, append my hand and seal, to remember and realize earnestly 

1 An impulse which led them vaguely to foresee, though not to 
explain, the electric principle of spiritual life. 



316 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the following invincible facts : first, that God and His Christ 
exist; secondly, that while the little paltry affairs of our temporal 
state are being built up as crazily as a child's house of cards, the 
huge Central Sphere revolves, and the Electric Ring, strong and 
indestructible, is ever at its work of production and re-absorption ; 
thirdly, that every thought and word of every habitant on every 
planet is reflected in lightning language before the Creator's eyes 
as easily as we receive telegrams ; fourthly, that this world is the 
only spot in the Universe where His existence is actually questioned 
and doubted. And the general spread of modern positivism, mate- 
rialism, and atheism, is one of the most terrific and meaning signs 
of the times. The work of separating the wheat from the chaff is 
beginning. Those who love and believe in God and Spiritual 
Beauty are about to be placed on one side ; the millions who wor- 
ship Self are drawing together in vast opposing ranks on the other ; 
and the moment approaches which is prophesied to be "as the 
lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, and 
shineth even to the other part." In other words, the fiery whirlpool 
of the Ring is nearly ready to absorb our planet in its vortex ; and 
out of all who dwell upon its surface, how many shall reach the 
glorious Central World of God ? Of two men working in the same 
field, shall it not be as Christ foretold — " the one shall be taken 
and the other left " ? 

Friend, Pupil, Reader ! Whoever thou art, take heed and foster 
thine own soul ! For know that nothing can hinder the Immortal 
Germ within us from taking the form imposed upon it by our 
Wills. Through Love and Faith, it can become an Angel, and 
perform wonders even while in its habitation of clay ; through in- 
difference and apathy, it can desert us altogether and forever; 
through mockery and blasphemous disbelief, it can sink into 
even a lower form than that of a snake or toad. In our own 
unfettered hand lies our eternal destiny. Wonderful and ter- 
rible responsibility ! Who shall dare to say we have no need of 
prayer? . . . 

In making extracts from books we cordially recom- 
mend for perusal, we do not, of course, pledge ourselves 



LECTURE XV. 317 

in the slightest degree to an endorsement of all they 
contain. Our view of literature is substantially that 
taken by Matthew Arnold, which is in effect, that it is 
a good thing to read a great deal so as to get acquainted 
as much as possible with the best thoughts of the best 
thinkers which have found their way into literature. 
This acquaintance the great essayist and critic calls 
" culture." Now, in reviewing "The Electric Creed" 
as a whole, or even such portions of it as we have given 
in this chapter, we might easily question many of the 
views therein put forward ; but as it does not claim to 
be an infallible document, had we not better leave each 
reader to consider and criticise it for himself or herself, 
without attempting to analyze fully all its stupendous 
claims? As no human mind can possibly form an ulti- 
mate idea of Deity, some may reasonably take mild 
exception to some of the expressions concerning God ; 
but are we not obliged to clothe our best spiritual con- 
ceptions in a proximate language, which may be called 
(again agreeing with Matthew Arnold) not the exact 
language of science, but the fluid language of poetry ? 
One of the grandest poems ever written, — 

" O thou Eternal One whose presence bright 
All space doth occupy, all motion guide," — 

introduces the expression, 

" Though worthless our conceptions are of Thee," 

at the very time when he is pouring forth his very soul 
in an ardent tribute of praise to the Eternal One, con- 
cerning whose perfect goodness, as well as absolute 
being, he entertains no doubt. Let us not, then, permit 



318 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

a spirit of carping criticism to possess us, till we spurn 
as false or ridiculous that which is after all the best 
accommodation of truth possible to our weak under- 
standing. How few there are who can afford to dis- 
pense with every outward symbol; nearly every one 
we meet requires something tangible to lay hold upon •, 
the absolute eternal infinite seems too remote to meet 
the finite needs of those who dwell amid countless limi- 
tations, and are themselves far less than infinite. Our 
experience has taught us, and is daily teaching us more 
and more decidedly, that those who are first to cry out 
against a sublime metaphor, or exalted symbol, make 
unto themselves idols of the crudest type; thus we 
gladly welcome as a real help to all who seek ennobled 
views of life, anything and everything that supplants a 
sordid image with a sublime one. 

Madame Blavatsky said many years ago in " Isis Un- 
veiled," that she had gazed on Gustave Dora's wonderful 
picture of the Trinity, feeling all the while that the 
awful silent chaos in the background spoke more of the 
eternal than the three quite ordinary, though exceed- 
ingly well executed figures intended to represent Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. Does not the litany of the 
Church of England, which is also the litany of the 
Episcopal Church in America, address three persons — 
and one God ? Who and what is the one God beyond 
the three persons, but the nameless ineffable Para- 
Brahm of Oriental Theosophy ? 

With reference to the idea of Christ so stoutly main- 
tained in "The Electric Creed,'' it is one pi those great 
ideas which must ever transcend every attempt at 



LECTUEE XV. 319 

explicit definition. In the exquisite model of divine 
humanity presented by the Christian evangelists we 
recognize a faultless type of man : yes, faultless ; we 
reiterate the word despite all the puerile attempts made 
by the learned and illiterate alike to find flaws in the 
matchless character of the world's greatest Saviour. The 
pattern life is perfect, as we should all find out did we 
attempt to make it the model of our own. We may 
insult the loftiest ideal of manly purity as much as we 
will, but ever to our own detriment, for the world to-day 
is sick, sad, and sinful just to the extent of its departure 
from the perfect model exhibited in the New Testa- 
ment. We care nothing for genealogies and other 
doubtful points, but we will stand for the unanswerable 
truth that were the exact precepts of Jesus made the 
foundation of all our conduct, the world would soon 
become the lovely paradise it never can be till this is 
the rule of action. Count Tolstoi, the eminent Russian 
philanthropist, has said none too much, and spoken none 
too strongly on this subject, and while we do not 
commit ourselves, by any means, to all his theories of 
political economy, many of which are no doubt better 
adapted to Russia than to other countries, we do endorse 
to the full every word he has written concerning the 
gospels as containing a rule of life, which, if exactly 
followed, would redress all wrongs, and bring the 
entire human family into perfect harmony in all its. 
members. 

As it would be quite useless for us to endeavor to 
review this marvelous electric philosophy in detail with- 
out occupying at least a volume, and knowing at the 



320 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

same time that no words of ours can set it forth as fasci- 
natingly as it is proclaimed in the book under review, 
we will here introduce a few more choice extracts from 
the " Romance." 

The following is a very greatly curtailed account of 
one of the most striking spiritual experiences we have 
ever encountered in literature or heard from human lips ; 
the scientific views it advances must be of interest to all 
who would study the objects of life. Before the hero- 
ine's spiritual voyage through space, this conversation 
takes place between her and Heliobas : — 

" I have a few serious things to say to you before you leave me 
on your celestial journey." 

I trembled slightly, but took the chair he pointed out to me — 
a large easy-chair in which one could recline and sleep. 

"Listen," continued Heliobas ; "I told you, when you first came 
here, that whatever I might do to restore you to health, you would 
have it in your power to repay me amply. You are restored to 
health; will you give me my reward?" 

" I would and will do anything to prove my gratitude to you," I 
said earnestly. " Only tell me how." 

"You are aware," he went on, "of my theories respecting the 
Electric Spirit or Soul in Man. It is progressive, as I have told 
you — it begins as a germ — it goes on increasing in power and 
beauty forever, till it is great and pure enough to enter the 
last of all worlds — God's world. But there are sometimes hin- 
drances to its progression — obstacles in its path, which cause it to 
recoil and retire a long way back — so far back occasionally that 
it has to commence its journey over again. Now, by my earnest 
researches, I am able to study and watch the progress of my own 
inner force or soul. So far, all has been well — prayerfully and 
humbly I may say I believe all has been well. But I foresee an 
approaching shadow — a difficulty — a danger — which, if it can- 
not be repelled or passed in some way, threatens to violently push 



LECTURE XV. 321 

back my advancing spiritual nature, so that, with much grief and 
pain, I shall have to recommence the work that I had hoped was 
done. I cannot, with all my best effort, discover what this darken- 
ing obstacle is — but you, yes, you" — for I had started up in sur- 
prise — " you, when you are lifted up high enough to behold these 
things, may, being perfectly unselfish in this research, attain to 
the knowledge of it, and explain it to me when you return. In 
trying to probe the secret for myself, it is of course purely for my 
own interest ; and nothing clear, nothing satisfactory can be spiritually 
obtained, in which selfishness has ever so slight a share. You, if indeed 
I deserve your gratitude for the aid I have given you — you will be 
able to search out the matter more certainly, being in the position 
of one soul working for another. Still, I cannot compel you to do 
this for me — I only ask, will you ? " 

His entreating and anxious tone touched me keenly ; but I was 
amazed and perplexed, and could not yet realize what strange 
thing was going to happen to me. But whatever occurred I was 
resolved to give a ready consent to his request ; therefore I said 
firmly : — 

" I will do my best, I promise you. Remember that I do not 
know, I cannot even guess where I am going, or what strange sen- 
sations will overcome me ; but if I am permitted to have any 
recollection of earth at all, I will try to find out what you ask." 

Heliobas seemed satisfied, and rising from his chair, unlocked a 
heavily bound iron safe. From this he took a glass flask of a 
strange, ever-moving, glittering fluid, the same in appearance as 
that which Raffaelo Cellini had forbidden me to drink. He then 
paused and looked searchingly at me. 

" Tell me," he said in an authoritative tone, " tell me why you 
wish to see what to mortals is unseen ? What motive have you ? 
What ulterior plan ? " 

I hesitated. Then I gathered my strength together and an- 
swered decisively : — 

" I desire to know why this world, this universe, exists ; and I 
also wish to prove, if possible, the truth and necessity of religion. 
And I think T would give my life, if it were worth anything, to be 
certain of the truth of Christianity." 



322 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Heliobas gazed in my face with a sort of half -pity, half- 
censure. 

" You have a daring aim," he said slowly, " and you are a bold 
seeker. But shame, repentance, and sorrow await you where you 
are going, as well as rapture and amazement. 'I would give my life, 
if it were worth anything .' That utterance has saved you — other- 
wise to soar into an unexplored wilderness of spheres, weighted by 
your own doubts and guided solely by your own wild desires, would 
be a fruitless journey." 

I felt abashed as I met his steady scrutinizing eyes. 

" Surely it is well to wish to know the reason of things ? " I 
asked, with some timidity. 

" The desire of knowledge is a great virtue, certainly," he 
replied; "it is not truly felt by one in a thousand. Most persons 
are content to live and die, absorbed in their own petty, common- 
place affairs, without troubling themselves as to the reasons of 
their existence. Yet it is almost better, like these, to wallow in 
blind ignorance than wantonly to doubt the Creator because He is 
unseen, or to put a self-opinionated construction on His mysteries 
because He chooses to vail them from our eyes." 

" I do not doubt ! " I exclaimed earnestly, " I only want to make 
sure, and then perhaps I may persuade others." 

" You can never compel faith," said Heliobas calmly. " You 
are going to see wonderful things that no tongue or pen can ade- 
quately describe. Well, when you return to earth again, do you 
suppose you can make people believe the story of your experiences ? 
Never ! Be thankful if you are the possessor of a secret joy your- 
self, and do not attempt to impart it to others, who will only repel 
and mock you." 

" Not even to one other ? " I asked hesitatingly. 

A warm, kindly smile seemed to illuminate his face as I put 
this question. 

" Yes, to one other — the other half of yourself — you may tell 
all things," he said. " But now, no more converse. If you are 
quite ready, drink this." 

He held out to me a small tumbler filled with the sparkling, 
volatile liquid he had poured from the flask. For one moment my 



LECTURE XV. 323 

courage almost forsook me, and an icy shiver ran through my 
veins. Then I bethought myself of all my boasted bravery; was 
it possible that I should fail now at this critical moment ? I al- 
lowed myself no more time for reflection, but took the glass from 
his hand and drained its contents to the last drop. It was taste- 
less, but sparkling and warm on the tongue. Scarcely had I 
swallowed it, when a curiously light, dizzy sensation overcame me, 
and the figure of Heliobas standing before me seemed to assume 
gigantic proportions. I saw his hands extend — his eyes, like 
lamps of electric flame, burned through and through me — and 
like a distant echo, I heard the deep vibrating tones of his voice 
uttering the following words : — 

" Azul ! Aziil ! Lift up this light and daring spirit unto thyself ; 
be its pioneer upon the path it must pursue ; suffer it to float un- 
trammeled through the wide and glorious Continents of Air ; give 
it form and force to alight on any of the vast and beautiful spheres 
it may desire to behold ; and if worthy, permit it to gaze, if only 
for a brief interval, upon the supreme vision of the First and Last 
of worlds. By the force thou givest unto me, I free this soul ; do 
thou, Azul, quickly receive it ! " 

A dense darkness now grew thickly around me — I lost all power 
over my limbs — I felt myself being lifted up forcibly and rapidly, 
up, up, into some illimitable, terrible space of blackness and noth- 
ingness. I could not think, move, or cry out — I could only feel 
that I was rising, rising, steadily, swiftly, breathlessly . . . when 
suddenly a long quivering flash of radiance, like the fragment of a 
rainbow, struck dazzlingly across my sight. Darkness ? What had 
I to do with darkness ? I knew not the word — I was only con- 
scious of light — light exquisitely pure and brilliant — light through 
which I stepped as easily as a bird flies in air. Perfectly awake to 
my sensations, I felt somehow that there was nothing remarkable' 
in them — I seemed to be at home in some familiar element. Deli- 
cate hands held mine — a face far lovelier than the loveliest face of 
woman ever dreamed by poet or painter smiled radiantly at me, 
and I smiled back again. A voice whispered in strange musical 
murmurs, such as I well seemed to know and comprehend : — 

" Gaze behind thee ere the picture fades." 



324 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

I obeyed, half reluctantly, and saw as a passing shadow in a 
glass, or a sort of blurred miniature painting, the room where 
Heliobas stood, watching some strange imperfect shape, which I 
seemed faintly to recognize. It looked like a small cast in clay, 
very badly executed, of the shape I at present wore; but it was 
incomplete, as though the sculptor had given it up as a failure and 
gone away, leaving it unfinished. 

" Did I dwell in that body ? " I mused to myself, as I felt the 
perfection of my then state of being. " How came I shut in such 
a prison ? How poor a form — how destitute of faculties — how 
full of infirmities — how limited in capabilities — how narrow in 
all intelligence — how ignorant — how mean ! " 

And I turned for relief to the shining companion who held me, 
and obeying an impulse suddenly imparted, I felt myself floating 
higher and higher till the last limits of the atmosphere surround- 
ing the Earth were passed, and fields of pure and cloudless ether 
extended before us. Here we met myriads of creatures like our- 
selves, all hastening in various directions — all lovely and radiant 
as a dream of the fairies. Some of these beings were quite tiny 
and delicate — some of lofty stature and glorious appearance ; their 
forms were human, yet so refined, improved, and perfected, that 
they were unlike, while so like humanity. 

" Askest thou nothing ? " whispered the voice beside me. 

" Tell me," I answered, " what I must know." 

" These spirits that we behold," went on the voice, " are the 
guardians of all the inhabitants of all the planets. Their labors 
are those of love and penitence. Their work is to draw other souls 
to God — to attract them by warnings, by pleading, by praying. 
They have all worn the garb of mortality themselves, and they 
teach mortals by their own experience. For these radiant creatures 
are expiating sins of their own in thus striving to save others — 
the oftener they succeed the nearer they approach to Heaven. 
This is what is vaguely understood on your earth as purgatory ; 
the sufferings of spirits who love and long for the presence of their 
Creator, and who yet are not pure enough to approach Him. Only 
by serving and saving others can they obtain at last their own joy. 
Every act of ingratitude and forgetfulness and wickedness com- 



LECTURE XV. 325 

mitted by a mortal, detains one or another of these patient workers 
longer away from Heaven — imagine then what a weary while 
many of them have to wait ! " 

I made no answer, and we floated on. Higher and higher — 
higher and higher — till at last my guide, whom I knew to be that 
being whom Heliobas had called Aziil, bade me pause. We were 
floating close together in what seemed a sea of translucent light. 
From this point I could learn something of the mighty workings 
of the Universe. I gazed upon countless solar systems, that like 
wheels within wheels revolved with such rapidity that they seemed 
all one wheel. I saw planets whirl around and around with breath- 
less swiftness, like glittering balls flung through the air — burning 
comets flared fiercely past like torches of alarm for God's war 
against Evil — a marvelous procession of indescribable wonders 
sweeping on forever in circles, grand, huge, and immeasurable. 
And as I watched the superb pageant, I was not startled or con- 
fused — I looked upon it as any one might look on any quiet land- 
scape scene in what we know of Xature. I scarcely could perceive 
the Earth from whence I had come — so tiny a speck was it — 
nothing but a mere pin's point in the burning whirl of immensi- 
ties. I felt, however, perfectly conscious of a superior force in 
myself to all these enormous forces around me. I knew without 
needing any explanation that I was formed of an indestructible 
essence, and that were all these stars and systems suddenly to end 
in one fell burst of brilliant horror, I should still exist — I should 
know and remember and feel — should be able to watch the birth 
of a new Universe, and take my part in its growth and design. 

" Remind me why these wonders exist," I said, turning to my 
guide, and speaking in those dulcet sounds which were like music 
and yet like speech ; " and why amid them all the Earth is believed 
by its inhabitants to have merited destruction, and yet to have 
been found worthy of redemption ? " 

"Thy last question shall be answered first," replied Aziil. 
" Seest thou yonder planet circled with a ring ? It is known to the 
dwellers on Earth, of whom when in clay thou art one, as Saturn. 
Descend with me ! " 

And in a breath of time we floated downward and alighted on 



326 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

a broad and beautiful plain, where flowers of strange shape and 
color grew in profusion. Here we were met by creatures of lofty 
stature and dazzling beauty, human in shape, yet angelic in coun- 
tenance. They knelt to us with reverence and joy, and then 
passed on to their toil or pleasure, whichever invited them, and I 
looked to Aziil for explanation. 

" To these children of the Creator," said that radiant guide, " is 
granted the ability to see and to converse with the spirits of the 
air. They know them and love them, and implore their protection. 
In this planet sickness and old age are unknown, and death comes 
as a quiet sleep. The period of existence is about two hundred 
years, according to the Earth's standard of time; and the process 
of decay is no more unlovely than the gentle withering of roses. 
The influence of the electric belt around their world is a bar to 
pestilence and disease, and scatters health with light. All sciences, 
arts, and inventions known on Earth are known here, only to 
greater perfection. The three important differences between the 
inhabitants of this planet and those who dwell on Earth are these : 
first, they have no rulers in authority, as each one perfectly governs 
himself ; second, they do not marry, as the law of attraction which 
draws together any two of opposite sexes, holds them fast in invio- 
lable fidelity ; thirdly, there is no creature in all the immensity of 
this magnificent sphere who has ever doubted, or whoever will 
doubt, the existence of the Creator." 

A thrill of fiery shame seemed to dart through my spiritual 
being as I heard this, and I made no answer. Some fahy-like little 
creatures, the children of the Saturnites, as I supposed, here came 
running towards us and knelt down, reverently clasping their 
hands in prayer. They then gathered flowers and flung them on 
that portion of ground where we stood, and gazed at us fearlessly 
and lovingly, as they might have gazed at some rare bird or 
butterfly. 

Azul signed to me, and we rose while yet in their sight, and 
soaring through the radiance of the ring, which was like a sun 
woven into a circle, we soon left Saturn far behind us, and alighted 
on Venus. Here seas, mountains, forests, lakes, and meadows 
were one vast garden, in which the bloom and verdure of all worlds 



LECTURE XV. 327 

seemed to find a home. Here were realized the dreams of sculp- 
tors and painters, in the graceful forms and exquisite faces of the 
women, and the splendid strength and godlike beauty of the men. 
A brief glance was sufficient to show me that the moving spring of 
all the civilization of this radiant planet was the love of Xature 
and Art united. There were no wars — for there were no different 
nations. All the inhabitants were like one vast family ; they 
worked for one another, and vied with each other in paying 
homage to those of the loftiest genius among them. They had one 
supreme Monarch to whom they all rendered glad obedience ; and 
he was a Poet, ready to sacrifice his throne with joy as soon as his 
people should discover a greater than he. For they all loved not 
the artist but the Art ; and selfishness was a vice unknown. Here, 
none loved or were wedded save those who had spiritual sympa- 
thies, and here too, no creature existed who did not believe in and 
worship the Creator. 

The same state of things existed in Jupiter, the planet we next 
visited, where everything was performed by electricity. Here, per- 
sons living hundreds of miles apart could yet converse together 
with perfect ease through an electric medium ; ships ploughed the 
seas by electricity ; printing, an art of which the dwellers on Earth 
are so proud, was accomplished by electricity — in fact everything 
in the way of science, art, and invention known to us was also 
known in Jupiter, only to greater perfection, because tempered and 
strengthened by an electric force which never failed. From Jupi- 
ter, Aziil guided me to many other fair and splendid worlds — yet 
none of them were Paradise ; all had some slight drawback — some 
physical or spiritual ailment as it were, which had to be combated 
with and conquered. All the inhabitants of each star longed for 
something they had not, — something better, greater, and higher, — 
and therefore all had discontent. They could not realize their best 
desires in the state of existence they then were, therefore they all 
suffered disappointment. They were all compelled to work in 
some way or another; they were all doomed to die. Yet, unlike 
the dwellers on Earth, they did not, because their lives were more 
or less constrained and painful, complain of or deny the goodness 
of God — on the contrary, they believed in a future state which 



328 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

should be as perfect as their present one was imperfect ; and the 
chief aim and object of all their labors was to become worthy of 
attaining that final grand result — Eternal Happiness and Peace. 

" Readest thou the lesson in these glowing spheres, teeming with 
life and learning?" murmured Aziil to me, as we soared swiftly on 
together. "'Know that not one smallest world in all the myriad 
systems circling before thee holds a single human creature who 
doubts his Maker. Not one ! except thine own doomed star ! Be- 
hold it yonder — sparkling feebly, like a faint flame amid sunshine 
— how poor a speck it is — how like a scarcely visible point in all 
the brilliancy of the ever-revolving wheel of Life ! Yet there dwell 
the dwarfs of clay — the men and women who pretend to love 
while they secretly hate and despise one another. There, wealth 
is a god, and the greed of gain a virtue. There, genius starves, 
and heroism dies unrewarded. There, faith is martyred, and un- 
belief elected sovereign monarch of the people. There, the sub- 
lime, unreachable mysteries of the Universe are haggled over by 
poor finite minds who cannot call their lives their own. There, 
nation wars against nation, creed against creed, soul against soul. 
Alas, fated planet ! how soon shalt thou be extinct, and thy place 
shall know thee no more ! " 

I gazed earnestly at my radiant guide. " If that is true," I 
said, " why then should we have a legend that God, in the person 
of one called Christ, came to die for so miserable and mean a race 
of beings?" 

Aziil answered not, but turned her luminous eyes upon me with 
a sort of wide, dazzling wonder. Some strange impelling force 
bore me onward, and before I could realize it I was alone. Alone, 
in a vast area of light through which I floated, serene and con- 
scious of power. A sound falling from a great height reached me ; 
it was first like a grand organ-chord, and then like a voice, trumpet- 
clear and far-echoing. 

" Spirit that searchest for the Unseen," it said, " because I will 
not that one atom of true worth should perish, unto thee shall 
be given a vision — unto thee shall be taught a lesson thou 
dreamest not of. Thou shalt create; thou shalt design and plan; 
thou shalt be worshiped, and thou shalt destroy ! Rest therefore 



LECTURE XV. 329 

in the light and behold the things that are in the light, for the time 
cometh when all that seemeth clear and visible now shall be but 
darkness. And they that love me not shall have no place of abode 
in that hour ! " 

The voice ceased. Awed, yet consoled, I listened for it again. 
There was no more sound. Around me was illimitable light, il- 
limitable silence. But a strange scene unfolded itself swiftly 
before me — a sort of shifting dream that was a reality, yet so 
wonderfully unreal — a vision that impressed itself on every por- 
tion of my intelligence ; a kind of spirit-drama in which I was 
forced to enact the chief part, and where a mystery that I had 
deemed impenetrable was made perfectly clear and simple of com- 
prehension. 

What follows is somewhat theological in character, 
and may provoke dissent among many who claim much 
illumination. We cannot abbreviate it without marring 
its beauty, and therefore refer the reader to the book 
itself. After the heroine returns from her wonderful 
journey, Heliobas addresses her thus : — 

"When you have educated your Will to a certain height of 
electric command, you can at your pleasure see at any time, and 
see plainly, the spirits who inhabit the air; and also those who, 
descending to long distances below the Great Circle, come within 
the range of human electricity, or the attractive matter contained 
in the Earth's atmosphere. You can converse with them, and they 
with you. You will also be able, at your desire, to see the parted 
spirits of dead persons so long as they linger within Earth's radius, 
which they seldom do, being always anxious to escape from it as 
soon as possible. Love may sometimes detain them, or remorse ; 
but even these have to yield to the superior longings which possess 
them the instant they are set free. You will, in your intercourse 
with your fellow-mortals, be able to discern their motives quickly 
and unerringly — you will at once discover where you are loved 
and where you are disliked ; and not all the learning and logic of 



330 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

so-called philosophers shall be able to cloud your instinct. You 
will have a keener appreciation of good and beautiful things — a 
delightful sense of humor, and invariable cheerfulness ; and what- 
ever you do, unless you make some mistake by your own folly, will 
carry with it its success. And, what is perhaps a greater privilege, 
you will find that all who are brought into very close contact with 
you will be beneficially influenced, or the reverse, exactly as you 
choose to exert your power. I do not think, after what you have 
seen, you will ever desire to exert a malign influence, knowing that 
the Creator of your being is all love and forgiveness. At any rate, 
the greatest force in the universe, electricity, is yours — that is, it 
has begun to form itself in you — and you have nothing to do but 
to encourage its growth, just as you would encourage a taste for 
music or the fine arts. . . . 

" Look out yonder,'' he said, in low and earnest tones ; " look at 
the dark blue veil strewn with stars, through which so lately your 
daring soul pierced its flight ! See how the small Moon hangs like 
a lamp in Heaven, apparently outshining the myriad worlds around 
her, that are so much vaster and fairer! How deceptive is the 
human eye ! — nearly as deceptive as the human reason. Tell me 
— why did you not visit the Moon, or the Sun, in your recent 
wanderings?" 

This question caused me some surprise. It was certainly very 
strange that I had not thought of doing so. Yet, on pondering the 
matter in my mind, I remembered that during my aerial journey 
suns and moons had been no more to me than flowers strewn on 
a meadow. I now regretted that I had not sought to know 
something of those two fair luminaries which light and warm 
our earth. 

Heliobas, after watching my face intently, resumed : " You can- 
not guess the reason of your omission ? I will tell you. There is 
nothing to see in either Sun or Moon. They were both inhabited 
worlds once ; but the dwellers in the Sun have ages ago lived their 
lives and passed to the Central Sphere. The Sun is nothing now 
but a burning world, burning rapidly and surely away ; or, rather, 
it is being absorbed bach into the Electric Circle from which it origi- 
nally sprang, to be thrown out again in some new and grander form. 



LECTURE XV. 331 

And so with all worlds, suns, and systems, forever and ever. 
Hundreds of thousands of those brief time-breathings, called years, 
may pass before this consummation of the Sun ; but its destruc- 
tion is going on now, or rather its absorption — and we, on our 
cold, small star, warm ourselves, and are glad, in the light of an 
empty world on fire ! " 

I listened with awe and interest. " And the Moon ? " I asked 
eagerly. 

"The Moon does not exist. What we see is the reflection or 
the electrograpli of what she once was. Atmospherical electricity 
has imprinted this picture of a long-ago living world upon the 
heavens, just as Raphael drew his cartoons for the men of to-day 
to see." 

II But," I exclaimed in surprise, " how about the Moon's influence 
on the tides ? and what of eclipses ? " 

"Xot the Moon, but the electric photograph of a once living 
but now absorbed world, has certainly an influence on the tides. 
The sea is impregnated with electricity. Just as the Sun will 
absorb colors, so the electricity in the sea is repelled or attracted 
by the electric picture of the Moon in Heaven. Because, as a 
painting is full of color, so is that faithful sketch of a vanished 
sphere, drawn with a pencil of pure light, full of immense elec- 
tricity ; and to carry the simile further, just as a painting may be 
said to be formed of various dark and light tints, so the electric 
portrait of the Moon contains various degrees of electric force, 
which, coming in contact with the electricity of the Earth's atmos- 
phere, produces different effects on us and on the natural scenes 
amid which we dwell. As for eclipses — if you slowly pass a round 
screen between yourself and a blazing fire, you will only see the 
edges of the fire. In the same way the electrograpli of the Moon 
passes at stated intervals between the Earth and the burning 
world of the Sun." 

"Yet surely," I said, "the telescope has enabled us to see the 
Moon as a solid globe — we have discerned mountains and valleys 
on its surface ; and then it revolves round us regularly — how do 
you account for these facts ? " 

"The telescope," returned Heliobas, "is merely an aid to the 



832 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

human eye ; and, as I told you before, nothing is so easily deceived 
as our sense of vision, even when assisted by mechanical appliances. 
The telescope, like the stereoscope, simply enables us to see the 
portrait of the Moon more clearly ; but all the same, the Moon, as 
a world, does not exist. Her likeness, taken by electricity, may 
last some thousands of years, and as long as it lasts it must revolve 
around us, because everything in the universe moves, and moves in 
a circle. Besides which, this portrait of the Moon being com- 
posed of pure electricity, is attracted and forced to follow the 
Earth by the compelling influence of the Earth's own electric 
power. Therefore, till the picture fades, it must attend the 
Earth like the haunting specter of a dead joy. You cannot under- 
stand now why we never see what we imagine to be the other side 
of the Moon. It simply has no other side, except space. Space is 
the canvas — the Moon is a sketch. How interested we are when 
a discovery is made of some rare old painting, of which the sub- 
ject is a perfectly beautiful woman ! It bears no name — perhaps 
no date — but the face that smiles at us is exquisite — the lips yet 
pout for kisses — the eyes brim over with love ! And we admire it 
tenderly and reverently — we mark it 'Portrait of a Lady,' and 
give it an honored place among our art collections. With how 
much more reverence and tenderness, ought we to look up at the 
'Portrait of a Fair Lost Sphere? circling yonder in that dense, 
ever-moving gallery of wonders, where the hurrying throng of 
spectators are living and dying worlds ! " 

I had followed the speaker's words with fascinated attention, 
but now I said : " Dying, Heliobas ? There is no death." 

" True ! " he answered, with hesitating slowness. " But there is 
what we call death — transition — and it is always a parting." 

" But not for long ! " I exclaimed, with all the gladness and 
eagerness of my lately instructed soul. " As worlds are absorbed 
into the Electric Circle and again thrown out in new and more 
glorious forms, so are we absorbed and changed into shapes of 
perfect beauty, having eyes that are strong and pure enough to 
look God in the face. The body perishes; but what have we to 
do with the body — our prison and place of experience — except 
to rejoice when we shake off its weight forever ? " 



LECTURE XV. 333 

With these words, " Rejoice when we shake off its 
weight forever," we conclude our notice of a book which, 
to our certain knowledge, has done more to instruct and 
console, ennoble and purify current romantic literature 
than any other volume with which we are acquainted. 
" Robert Elsmere " fades into gloom beside it, as Mrs. 
Humphrey Ward has unhappily cast off the miraculous 
for no certain kind of spiritual assurance whatever, 
while Marie Corelli has given pure gold whenever she 
has removed dross from prevailing religious conceptions. 
We do not wonder at the numerous letters of grateful 
thanks she has received from readers in various parts of 
the world, a few of which form a valuable appendix to 
the story. Before closing this inordinately long chapter, 
at the request of many of our correspondents we cite a 
short incident from one of our own stories, " Onesimus 
Toole," published as a serial in the Golden Grate of San 
Francisco, during the spring and early summer of 1889, 
and now issued as a separate volume. The main facts re- 
lated in that tale came under the writer's personal notice 
a few years ago, and were vouched for by thoroughly 
responsible persons, who, however, shunned notoriety, 
and therefore would not give permission for their real 
names and residences to be made known. 

Paris, strange as it may seem, is a nest of Theosophy, 
hidden deeply under the veil of outward glamour and 
frivolity. The bright French capital holds fully as much 
if not more genuine spirituality than the more sober, 
but not of necessity more virtuous, British metropolis, 
which also, to the writer's knowledge, contains very 
much more of genuine spiritual light than the casual 



334 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

observer is ever led to suppose. Highly developed per- 
sons rarety court publicity, and seldom do they offer to 
give light to those who are not earnestly in search of it. 
Once in a while some ray of spiritual truth may seem- 
ingly go out of its accustomed path to convince some 
soul who is not looking for light; but such instances 
are extremly rare, and may be termed exceptions to the 
general rule, which is expressed exactly in the words so 
often heard and read, but, alas, so seldom truly applied : 
"Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find." 
Those who ask in a spirit of vainglorious self-seeking, 
or who desire only to better their own personal condition 
for their private enjoyment, need not expect an answer 
from a very exalted spiritual source when they knock at 
the portals of the unseen realm; but those who are 
guided by unselfish desire to bless rather than to be 
blessed themselves have a right to expect that according 
to their faith it shall be unto them. This law is inex- 
orable and eternal, and is as truly natural as the law 
disputed by none when applied to earthly things, how- 
ever much it may be discredited when given a higher 
application. "Men cannot gather figs of thorns, or 
grapes of thistles." Would that every seeker after any 
spiritual gift, or knowledge, could remember and be 
guided by the assurance that words are comparatively 
worthless, while motive is everything in our search into 
the invisible. Then would the teachings and experi- 
ences recorded in this chapter be of no rare occurrence 
among mankind. What follows from " Onesimus Toole " 
will, we think, be of some service to those who are in 
search of light on spiritual electric therapeutics. 



LECTURE XV. 335 

Professor Montmarte, the pseudonym of a distinguished 
savant, known to the writer, gave the following explana- 
tion of spiritual healing to a pupil and patient, who had 
been long a sufferer from complicated ailments, and was 
completely restored under his teaching and treatment. 

"Electricity is the unitary manifestation of spirit; only in an 
electric guise is spirit ever revealed, and while electricity is both 
the ' savor of life unto life, and of death unto death ' in electrical 
therapeutics, the savant invariably works with the constructive cur- 
rent, if he be true to the irreversible commandment of divine law : 
* Resist not evil, but overcome evil with good'; the constructive 
force, however, is transformed into an agent of destruction when it 
expels foreign material from the frame, the animalcules, concerning 
which there is at present so much glib prating, are driven out 
never to return, their vacant places never to be re-occupied by simi- 
lar disturbers of the peace, when the element of life enters in as 
the superlatively strong man to evict one relatively strong, but of 
necessity comparatively weak when contrasted with the stronger. 
If you ask me how I explain the modus operandi of regeneration, 
I can only answer in a brief conversation such as we are now 
engaged in, that new cells and tissues, all vigorously healthy, being 
formed, the old decayed cells and tissues are removed. 

" I believe, indeed I will add, I know, that mental treatment 
can be so given as to be all inclusive, but in such cases electricity 
is the agent employed by spirit in rebuilding the frame, though in 
many instances, probably in most, quite without the knowledge of 
the mental therapeutist." 

" Excuse my interrupting," broke in Mr. Toole, who had been 
an eager listener to the Professor's speech, " but are we to conclude 
once for all, that Jesus and the apostles healed by electrical means, 
and that what you term human electricity issued from the hem of 
Christ's garment, reaching and healing the woman who had suffered 
twelve years from a painful malady which baffled all medical skill, 
and that the same force entered into the handkerchiefs and aprons, 
which according to the testimony of the Acts were laid on sick 



336 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

persons, and did this same force extend even to Peter's shadow 
and permeate the anointing oil recommended by James, when 
applied by the elders of the primitive church ? " 

" I answer unreservedly, yes ; but I may possibly take a some- 
what different view of some of these narratives to the one you 
doubtless entertain, judging by the style of your interrogations. 
Now, in the case of the woman first referred to; what did the 
Great Healer say to her? were not his words on several such occa- 
sions, 'Be of good cheer, your faith has made you whole,' or a 
statement to that effect ? Now faith has three distinct elements : 
first, a sincere disposition toward right ; second, confidence in the 
right perceived ; third, open spiritual vision, or unusually keen dis- 
cernment of right. To say your faith has made you whole is there- 
fore equivalent to the declaration, you owe your restoration to 
health to your faithfulness of disposition, your confidence in divine 
truth, and your spiritual perception of what is needful for your 
welfare. Had I the time and opportunity this evening to explain 
the ' way of salvation ' as I understand it, I am sure I could settle 
your mind with regard to many mooted theological questions 
which still embarrass you ; I will endeavor, in a very few words, to 
explain what I understand by salvation. 

" The great and holy teacher, Jesus, was in his terrestrial embodi- 
ment, a perfect human being, radiating constantly an untainted 
electric fluid ; this absolutely healthy life-essence reached out to all 
receptive minds, and drew them to him, in whom they found all 
the assistance they needed to lead them to live a healthy life ; but 
be cautious here, and beware lest you attribute to an emanation 
from a physical form what originates in the unseen realm of spirit, 
and only ultimates itself in the perfect human physique. The power 
exercised by Jesus was a power which delivered from the love of 
sin ; his influence excited an ardent love of righteousness, and led 
the suppliant for earthly benefit, to seek first the heavenly king- 
dom of righteousness, following upon the discovery of which 
earthly blessings could be fully realized. I am not intending to 
discuss dogmatic theology, which is often a belligerent as well as 
fruitless theme. I am inviting you to glean from the New Testa- 
ment practical help for daily use, and thus I emphasize those pas- 



LECTURE XV. 337 

sages which teach the latent possibilities of every human soul. 
What think you mean the words so often quoted, 'the works 
which I do, ye shall do also ' ? Whoever uttered such a sentence 
was a true scientist, a genuine teacher of men, one who explained 
the road along which we must travel if we too would reach the 
heights he had already scaled. Some persons were not at all bene- 
fited by personal association with the Christ ; the ever-execrated 
Judas Iscariot had been as near the person of his Master as the 
beloved and ever-faithful evangelist John ; the people who caused 
Jesus to marvel at their obstinate incredulity were as near his 
body, and could have touched his garments as readily as those 
whom it appears were instantly relieved of their infirmities. 

"What constitutes the difference between a receptive and a 
non-receptive state ? You may as well ask wherein a closed win- 
dow differs from an open one. People open their windows when 
they wish for light and air ; they close and barricade them when 
they are afraid of sunshine. We need not go far to find analogies 
in the field of daily experience. I am invited often to the homes 
of poor, misguided worldlings who offer themselves and children 
in sacrifice to the moloch of fashion and display. See those un- 
healthy, wretched women, clad in indecent garments which torture 
the ' human form divine/ into a hideous caricature of nature ; wit- 
ness the poor, deluded worshipers of the upholsterer's creations, 
whose sitting-rooms have the odor of tombs, and whose children 
are penned up in gilded cages, deprived of all the rightful freedom 
of youth for fear that carpets may be faded or soiled and com- 
plexions grow healthy through exposure to the light and air. 
Were Jesus on earth to-day, many a * Christian ' woman would be 
insulted and turn indignantly away when she found that tight- 
lacing, foot-pinching, and complexion-spoiling were not permissi- 
ble in ' the church of the first-born, whose names are written in 
heaven.' 

" We cannot disobey the law of God made manifest throughout 
the illimitable field of nature, to gratify the serpent of our lowest 
instincts without paying the penalty. I would offer the sternest 
rebuke to those pseudo-Christian scientists who teach the outra- 
geous falsehood that we become superior to the effect of all exter- 



338 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

nal things by pampering illicit appetites, and then presumptuously 
denying that anything material can affect us; such travesties of 
gospel-teaching need to be scorched with the fire of truthful 
teaching until they wither into ashes. I grant fully that when 
people live as the Gospel teaches them to live, they cannot be 
harmed by poisons, serpents, or aught else noxious under other 
conditions, but the impudent lie which affirms immunity from 
consequence while error is indulged, is the vilest falsification of 
the Gospel ever fabricated by ' mortal mind ' in its most ignorant 
degree of degradation. I do not read in gospel or epistle that any 
one was ever permanently saved from suffering who was not 
redeemed from the love of error, and what error is so gross, or 
affection so degrading as that which enslaves the reason in the 
chains of carnal appetite and frivolous desire for the world's 
applause, while in the same breath we are told to ignore all things 
material and all personal concerns, and trust entirely in Infinite 
Spirit? 

" The absence of the jewel consistency, from any crown, will rob 
that diadem of all abiding luster ; I do not wish for a moment to 
speak disparagingly of ' Christian Science/ but I do see rotten 
timbers in the vessel now launched upon the waves, bearing that 
inscription. But with regard to the handkerchiefs, aprons, shad- 
ows, and oil to which you have called my attention, I should un- 
hesitatingly pronounce many ancient beliefs decidedly supersti- 
tious, and I can readily see how many people in an Oriental country 
would approach spiritual life through the veil of their preconceived 
ideas and practices. I do not accredit garments, oils, or shadows 
with power to heal the sick, but I do know that there is no shadow 
without some substance to cast it, while wearing apparel is not, in 
the cases referred to, valued for its own sake, but solely by reason 
of its connection with an owner or wearer who inspires confidence 
and esteem ; and the very fact of the oil being ceremoniously ad- 
ministered by persons in high standing among the gnostic brethren 
of the first century, is, to my mind, sufficient proof that these out- 
ward things were nothing in themselves, but only serviceable as 
they enabled very crude and undeveloped intellects to lay hold of 
a truth whose naked beauty they could not at once discern." 



LECTURE XV. 339 

" Still," continued Mr. Toole, " granting all you say, and I most 
cordially thank you for your exceeding plainness of speech and 
clearness of doctrine, is there not, after all, something solid in the 
claim of the animal magnetist, or certainly in that of the psycholo- 
gist, mesmerist, or electrobiologist to whose instrumentality we un- 
doubtedly owe some cases of complete, and many of partial resto- 
ration to health ? " 

" I do not see," resumed the Professor, " that I need to alter my 
base, or in the slightest degree vary my position to admit that a 
healthy state of mind overflows in a torrent of healthy magnetism. 
I claim always that animal magnetism is not what we should seek 
for ; too often it is most grievously polluted, and is not at all an 
agreeable or a safe thing to handle when in a tainted condition. I 
put it to you as a reasonable man, does it seem feasible that an 
unhealthy body should communicate pure vital force to another 
frame ? Of what character and in what condition are the bulk of 
magnetic healers and those who employ massage ? I do not suggest 
that they are below the average man or woman, but are they above 
mediocrity in any direction ? Any one can give magnetic treatment, 
but can any one heal the sick by laying on of hands? Experience 
answers no ! Now, if we allow that many people whose outward 
methods are defective, accomplish good because of their goodness 
of heart and sincerity of purpose, I will agree with you that they 
enjoy a limited amount of success, and in this connection I beg 
you to note that ninety per cent of those who heal by such methods 
are Spiritualists and claim to be mediums. Their own theory, 
then, demolishes belief in w T hat is animal, and lifts the healing gift 
into a purely psychic realm, where it is made to depend on the in- 
telligent action of incorporeal beings. 

" Mrs. Richmond of Chicago, whose inspired addresses I often 
read with much pleasure, though not by any means friendly, to 
certain phases of the Christian or Mental Science Movement, takes 
this latter ground and defends it forcibly. Now, as I cannot deal 
with pluralities such as laws and forces continually without con- 
founding those who come to me for instruction, I bring everything 
to a point of unity and speak of law and force in the singular. I 
am often provoked to laughter by the absurd statements of many 



340 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

conceited sciolists who, ignorant of the very first principle, to say 
nothing of the latest discoveries in chemistry, inform us that be- 
cause while the ancients spoke of only four elements, earth, air, fire, 
and water, and modern chemists tell of somewhere between sixty 
and seventy primates, therefore nature does not proclaim unity; 
to such unlightened dabblers in science I would say, there is not a 
chemist of any repute on either side of the Atlantic or Pacific who 
does not maintain that all primates must be ultimately reducible 
to one absolute primary. This essential primary, I maintain, is 
electricity, which in its turn is but the outward garb of pure spirit, 
itself ever invisible, the unseen cause of all things, known only 
through its manifestations." 

As the conversation had proceeded, Mrs. Kittenscomb had fallen 
into a profound slumber, from which she awoke suddenly, after about 
an hour's enjoyment of most perfect and refreshing rest, exclaiming : 

" Oh,*I see it all now ; I have been grieving for the loss of my hus- 
band's body, and now I am to blend my efforts with his in enlarg- 
ing the sphere of his present ministry. To do this, to co-operate 
in his endeavors, 1 must forget self, and disembarrass my mind of all 
concern for material welfare" 

Only as we learn to know and prize each other in spirit, can we be 
healthy, happy, or pure. As we find spiritual life we know there can 
be no death. 



THE CHKIST. 

" Pro peccatis suae gentis 
Vidit Jesum in tormentis 
Et flagellis subditum." 



What care we who his parents were, or where 
The light of day first beamed on his dear face ? 
Plainly he stands the foremost of the race $ 



LECTURE XV. 341 

His truth and purity all men declare. 
Philosopher pronouncing words aflame ; 
Truer than all others from a human tongue, 
Deeper in meaning than when priests the same 
In tabernacles preached or cloisters sung ; 
"We hail him Christ, who showed the wondrous God, 
Yet sought not to describe or limit him. 
Free from material thought, conceit or whim : 
Content not in the common paths to plod ; 
Whose wondrous mission stands in contrast bold 
With church or creed or teaching new or old. 

ii. 

When we the lessons comprehend, he taught ; 

So deeply filled with love, so pure, so free 

From doubtful meaning, problems we have sought 

In vain to solve would have no mystery. 

Were they not practical they'd have no worth. 

He taught not how to pray so much as learn 

Man's duty to his brother man on earth ; 

Man's duty to himself, how to discern : 

Made plain the unity of all, with Him 

Through whom he raised the dead and made the blind 

To see ; revivified the weak and palsied limb, 

Or stilled to sleep the threatening wave and wind ; 

E'en as from out the tomb's dark damp confine 

The deathless man strode forth, with power divine. 

in. 

Let it be granted that from lower forms 
Of life sprang higher forms, through long, long years, 
And others higher still, through wreck and storms, 
Hard struggling came, timid and filled with fears, 



342 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Until to conscious view came naked men, 
Living in caves like beasts, without a thought 
But that of comfort for the body, then ; 
A monkey's ease or wolfish strife their lot. 
Surely some future dawn, with whiter light. 
Shall beam effulgent forth upon a race 
Of men who seek to know all things aright, 
Controlled not by the senses, time or place ; 
And in the brilliant splendor of that day 
Heaven shall be revealed, o'er earth hold sway. 

IV. 

Then shall the blinding mists, which hide from view 
Eeal things, be driven by the white sun hence ; 
God shall be manifest, so real, so true ; 
Freed from the shocking creed of recompense 
For good deeds done in a cheap, trivial way, 
Or vengeance for the wrong he knoweth not. 
And he shall come so near that those who seek 
A blessing from his hand, by night or day, 
May need no mediator — all untaught 
In litany — not knowing how to speak 
In prayer : they may approach him without fear, 
Take from his bounteous hand their rightful share, 
Which he will not, cannot, from them withhold, 
Who seek him meekly, but with wisdom bold. 

T. S. Very. 



LECTURE XVI. 

THEISM, SPIRITUALISM, AND THEOSOPHY: THEIR ESSEN- 
TIAL AGREEMENT AND NECESSARY UNION. 

What is the basis of true reform? 

Should Spiritualists offer prayer to a Supreme Being ? 

" The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." 



When we are asked whether Spiritualists should 
offer prayer to a Supreme Being, we may be allowed 
to enquire what constitutes a Spiritualist and what is 
Spiritualism. 

We understand that there are only two philosophies 
which can be said to account in any intelligent or 
rational way for the universe. The one is Spiritualis- 
tic ; the other is Materialistic. Either the Spiritual is 
the cause and the Material is the effect, or the Material 
is the cause and the Spiritual is the effect. 

We all know the position of Materialism : Material- 
ism states that everything is matter ; therefore if there 
is any spirit at all, — and certainly Materialists admit 
the phenomena of consciousness, — they declare that 
this consciousness is inseparable from the material form 
from which it is evolved. By tracing everything back 
to a germ cell, they endeavor to account for every 
external phenomenon and for all the consciousness or 



344 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

intelligence displayed through organisms by a process 
of evolution; and while the theories of evolution put 
forth by Larmarck in France, by Prof. Alfred Russel 
Wallace in England, by many notable men in the United 
States, and many eminent scientists all over the world, 
may prove this position substantially correct, — at all 
events reasonable, — yet all such theories of evolution 
are founded upon nothing unless you grant that there 
is a power behind all expression which is the cause of 
such expression. 

We have no objection whatever to evolution; Ave 
have no conflict whatever with any evolutionist; we 
do not even deny that one form can be transformed 
or transmuted into another, but we have never wit- 
nessed any process of typal transformation or transmu- 
tation, so we do not dogmatically affirm it. You will 
kindly remember that while a great many very positive 
statements are put into the mouth of Darwin by people 
who are not very familiar with his writings, Darwin 
himself did not make any positive statements whatever 
as to the transformation of species, but simply inferred 
it may be that one type is sometimes developed into 
another. He states a great many things which he puts 
forth hypothetically ; and if Darwin is to be credited 
with one special virtue more than another, that virtue 
is extreme cautiousness, unusual carefulness in making 
a statement. 

Alfred Russel Wallace, who should share honor with 
Darwin as co-discoverer of evolution in England, has 
declared in many works, and particularly in a very 
recent one, that the spiritual theory of life is not in 



LECTURE XVI. 345 

any way shaken by the theory of evolution, but that 
evolution rather helps to sustain it; while Professor 
Le Conte of the University at Berkeley, and many 
other eminent men in California, and indeed all over 
America and the world, take exactly the same position. 

Now if people think for a single instant that faith in 
a Supreme Being is endangered by evolution, they know 
no more of the subject than a blind man knows of color 
or a deaf man of sound. Though blind men may be 
perfectly honest, we refuse to put out our eyes, or even 
close them, because some people are lamentably short- 
sighted; and though deaf people may be perfectly sincere, 
we shall not wear cotton in our ears because they cannot 
hear. Therefore with all respect for those who take 
the Materialistic or Atheistic position, we are deter- 
mined to affirm what we know to be truth, and what 
we know to be truth is that every research of modern 
science, worthy of the name, absolutely confirms the 
position of the true Theist who acknowledges that an 
infinite intelligence is back of all phenomena. 

These words are not idle sentences thrown out on 
the spur of the moment. We would strongly advise 
all to read the most recent writings of Alfred Russel 
Wallace, the wise and eminent Spiritualist, who was 
honored with a very large audience in Metropolitan 
Temple, San Francisco, some time ago, when he deliv- 
ered that remarkable lecture, "If a man die, shall he 
live again?" printed in the Golden Grate, the Banner of 
Light, and other papers, and then issued in a pamphlet 
published by Colby & Rich, 9 Bosworth St., Boston, 
and Albert Morton, 210 Stockton St., San Francisco. 



346 STUDIES IX THEOSOPHY. 

We would advise all to study the latest writings of 
Professor Le Conte, and to compare the testimony of 
various men worthy the name of scientists, and you 
will find that evolution does not in any sense contradict 
the essential statement of any Bible. People may argue 
as much as they please concerning the different inter- 
pretations put upon the Pentateuch, and while some 
think it the result of a divided authorship, and many 
doubt its genuineness altogether ; while some interpret 
it literally, and others allegorically, and the Sweden- 
borgians contend with Swedenborg that it contains an 
interior significance which can only be interpreted by 
those who have the key of correspondence, we shall 
certainly not ask any one to accept the statements in 
the opening chapters of Genesis as of a character to 
convince scientists or explorers in any scientific domain. 
But you mil please remember that the eminent geolo- 
gist, Dr. Steele, a distinguished author of text-books on 
all the natural sciences, and many other equally able 
men, most distinctly affirm that there is nothing what- 
ever in geology which causes any reasonable mind to 
dispute the general underlying truth of Hebrew Cos- 
mogony. To say that the Bible is absolutely true, in its 
outward form, at least, or to claim that the accounts of 
creation in Genesis are exact facts as they stand, would 
be to claim a great deal more than any intelligent per- 
son or genuine scholar would think of claiming in these 
times. But we must remember that not only one Bible, 
but all the Bibles of the world (and there are many) 
point to the same central idea of life, and in that cen- 
tral idea all the greatest, the mightiest, and the wisest 



LECTURE XVI. 347 

minds in every age and country have concurred; all 
have united in affirming that " the heavens declare the 
glory of God." That " God geometrizes," as stated by 
Plato, has been echoed in the mind of every genuine 
scientist ever since his time. 

Science is knowledge, and nothing less. It is not 
speculation; it is not assertion; it is whatever can be 
proved, whatever can be demonstrated ; and that which 
can be demonstrated through evolution is that, so far 
as evolution itself can be demonstrated, it demonstrates 
the action of an infinite intelligence, which from the 
earliest start of the most primitive organism involved 
the thought of perfection ultimately outwrought in the 
wonderfully complex yet beautifully simple form of per- 
fected humanity. 

If we cannot see into the future, we can into the past 
far enough to realize that not a single creature has 
walked the earth with aimless tread; that nothing 
whatever has appeared which has not served some pur- 
pose ; therefore instead of our being at all fearful that 
the idea of God will go as people become scientific, we 
know that a sublime idea of God will come as soon as 
unscientific people receive some scientific enlightenment. 
When the idea is presented to the world that God is 
an all-ruling intelligence, an infinite spirit, you certainly 
will not be deluded by any foolish statements about a 
personal God, especially when persons know well that 
the word person is used in a hundred different ways by 
a hundred different people ; and that the best authors 
of the day refuse to contest the personal side of the 
question. Some people say that God is personal ; some 



348 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

say that God is impersonal ; some say God is super-per- 
sonal ; but modest people are apt to say they really do 
not know : what you may mean by the word person and 
what I may mean by that word is somewhat doubtful. 

A Supreme Intelligence, an Infinite Being, does not at 
all imply limited personality ; so if any one says to us, 
" Do you believe in a God with personal limitations ? " 
we answer we do not. "Do you believe God has a local- 
ized throne ? " We do not, for we cannot possibly con- 
ceive of the Eternal Infinite occupying one place and 
not all space ; or manifesting through one form and not 
through all forms. It may be quite true that science 
tends in the direction of what may be termed, for want 
of a better designation, Spiritual Pantheism; but Spirit- 
ual Pantheism is the very reverse of Materialism. 
Spiritual Pantheism is the glorious conception that one 
infinite intelligence pervades all the universe and that 
Eternal Law is the expression of Infinite Will. Cer- 
tainly law is eternal ; certainly law is immutable ; cer- 
tainly everything is governed by law; but cannot a 
child understand if it be stated as a primal postulate 
that the Divine Being is one and unalterable, and that 
the Divine Law is the operation of the Divine Mind, 
that the movement of the Divine Mind must be orderly, 
consistent, and unvarying, if the mind itself is consistent, 
orderly, and unvarying ? 

No idea of law gathered from human legislation can 
be applied to Divine Law, because man is continually 
changing; and as man changes, his laws change. There 
is no law apart from intelligence ; there is not a fraction 
of proof that there is any law in the universe which is 



LECTURE XVI. 349 

not a manifestation of intelligent Will producing order. 
Every expression of human life tends directly to the 
conclusion that all law is the expression of will. If we 
rise from the "known" to the "unknown," calling the 
ways of men on earth " the known " and whatever lies 
beyond the sphere of human activity "the unknown," 
we must conclude concerning eternal law, the law of the 
universe, that it is on the basic line we have laid down, 
having discovered Will to be the sole foundation for 
an expression of law in the management of human 
affairs. What is law in America? There is no law 
without a legislator; there cannot be. In a republic 
the law changes every time the will of the people 
changes. In Turkey the law changes when the will of 
the Sultan changes ; in Russia it changes when the will 
of the Czar changes ; but if intelligent people distinctly 
affirm that God never changes, how can they suppose 
that the law which is the expression of God's Will 
will ever change ? 

Therefore, admitting, as all intelligent Theists admit, 
that back of law is an intelligence which is unchanging, 
universal law being the manifestation of this intelli- 
gence, how can the manifestation change if the intelli- 
gence does not change ? Immutable law is the manifes- 
tation of immutable mind. The apostle James was 
undoubtedly right when he said " God is without varia- 
bleness, or shadow of alteration " ; therefore as the Divine 
Being is without alteration, a law which is the manifes- 
tation of the Divine Being is likewise without alteration. 
Read the sermons of the Rev. M. J. Savage, of Boston, 
concerning Spiritualism and kindred topics, and you will 



350 STUDIES IN THEOSOPRY. 

find when he deals with any theistic problem, he harmo- 
nizes perfectly with the most scientific and enlightened 
thought in all countries ; he unhesitatingly affirms that 
what we call the law of nature, is nothing other than 
the unvarying habit of the Divine Mind ; that what we 
talk about as law is simply the orderly succession of 
events. The law of Karma (a Sanskritic word meaning 
consequence) signifies nothing more than the regular 
succession of cause and effect ; that whatsoever we sow 
we shall reap ; and it is eternally true, that if we ask 
for stones we will not get bread ; if we ask for serpents 
we will not get fish. The law is undoubtedly eternally 
and immutably fixed, but it is only the eternal order in 
which all events move. If there were no God, every- 
thing would be subject to change, to fate, to caprice, to 
we know not what ; and to live forever in a universe 
governed by a blind, cold, unintelligent law would be a 
catastrophe instead of a blessing. 

For ourselves, we want no Godless Spiritualism ; we 
desire to live in no Godless universe. To live in a 
universe forever ruled by a blind power which knows 
neither wisdom nor love, is a prospect so much worse 
than that held out by Materialists, that we much prefer 
Materialism, which teaches that we drop wholly out 
of conscious existence when the physical body dies. 
Spiritualism only becomes worthy of acceptance, as it is 
only spiritual and intelligent, when it bases everything 
upon the rock of Spirit ; true Spiritualism through all 
ages, wherever expressed, is not "Atheism with a ghost.'' 
All Spiritualists worthy the name acknowledge a spirit- 
ual foundation for all things. Dr. J. R. Buchanan, who 



LECTURE XVI. 351 

is certainly an eminent Spiritualist, declares that life is 
a spiritual power and cannot be derived except from 
prior life, and this in a work entitled "Sarcognomy " 
(science of the flesh), where, from the title, Ave should 
scarcely expect to find such a statement, did we not 
know that a reasoning anthropologist cannot be an 
atheist. Look where you will in a scientific direction, 
science affirms God : on this position we are willing to 
stake all issues; here we have always planted our feet 
and always shall, for we know that Atheism is radically 
false. 

We maintain that to abolish prayer and to state that 
invocations are out of place in a Spiritualists' meeting 
is most absurd, and further, that it implies a spirit of 
tyranny. We maintain also that it is a positive duty 
for people who know that prayer is answered, to pro- 
claim their knowledge to the world. We have over 
and over again been called upon to sustain spiritual 
positions in opposition to physical speculations, and in 
all such cases we hold to the metaphysical statement be- 
cause w r e have proved it correct. Having proven it, it 
was utterly impossible for us to be shaken out of it or 
moved from it in the least ; and as we positively know 
that praj^er is efficacious, we affirm that it is what Mont- 
gomery terms it, " the soul's sincere desire, uttered or 
unexpressed." If any one will pray sincerely and in- a 
faithful spirit, he will be able to give the lie to all such 
statements as " prayer is useless." But though prayer 
is answered, it is not answered except in harmony with 
Divine Law, for it is answered through the eternal oper- 
ation of immutable Law. The Law is stated in the 



352 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

words, If yon ask, you receive ; if you seek, you find. 
There is the statement of the Law; the prayer of faith 
literally does accomplish wonders: but this prayer is 
not out of harmony with the law of nature ; it is indeed 
as much in accord with it as the growth of any flower, 
the development of any tree, or the progress of any natu- 
ral event. 

The object of public prayer is to acknowledge publicly 
that all things are guided by one infinite universal prin- 
ciple of goodness. Persons who set up men of straw 
and then knock them down are not virtually assailing 
any position taken by intelligent people, for no intelli- 
gent people acknowledge the existence of their men of 
straw, so easily made and so easily knocked over, as 
being other than a creation of the fancy of the persons 
who make them and then demolish them; the gods 
attacked by infidels are at most individual minds or per- 
sonal spirits endowed with all human limitations. That 
there are individual spirits, and that these individual 
spirits really do answer certain kinds of prayer, there is 
no doubt in the minds of earnest students of the subject. 
That the deities of mythology have been more or less 
historical personages may very well be credited. Per- 
sons who are interested in the evolution of this theory 
concerning the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome 
may receive some interesting information, if they will 
study Donnelly's " Atlantis," and other works which 
enter into the history of the subject. (James Freeman 
Clarke's " Ten Great Religions," and Alger's " History 
of the Doctrine of a Future Life," will be found very 
suggestive.) 



LECTURE XVI. 353 

Persons speak of their " guides " and " controls " to- 
day ; whether they call them familiar spirits or not, they 
express the idea that unseen influences walk about with 
them and are peculiarly interested in their private wel- 
fare, sustaining such relations to them as brother or sis- 
ter, son or daughter, uncle or aunt. While this is not 
the highest Spiritualism, it leads many a mind to some- 
thing far beyond it, when properly understood and judi- 
ciously employed. Such Spiritualism is of great value 
as a factor in human progress. 

Now, if you remove from your thoughts all limited 
personal ideas of a deity, who is a great Frenchman, 
German, or Englishman, you are no longer addressing 
some individual intelligence greatly interested in the 
welfare of some particular country, and who has not yet 
outgrown earthly ideas of patriotism. Spiritualism has 
never taught that a man is at once emancipated from all 
errors and limitations by quitting the mortal form, but, 
rather, the deduction from all Spiritualistic teachings is 
that we begin in the state beyond the grave just where 
we left off on this side of it. Many people pray, no 
doubt, to intelligences who have a particular regard for 
their own individual welfare, and they ask to be helped 
forward by such in their business and all private enter- 
prises ; such prayer is not addressed to a Supreme Being 
at all. Now is this kind of prayer desirable ? It is not, 
if it is inconsistent with the idea of universal human 
brotherhood. A great many people at the time of the 
Franco-Prussian War prayed, " God bless France," and 
they meant, God curse Germany ; and a great many 
other people prayed, " God bless Germany," and they 



354 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

meant, God curse France. Is such prayer desirable? 
Decidedly it is not. It is quite possible to draw to your 
aid individual intelligences who love one country and 
hate another ; it is quite possible to draw around you a 
class of influences that will endeavor to build you up 
on the ruins of somebody else; but, you cannot conduct 
any reform on these grounds, and you will be successful 
in any reform measure only as you rise to the higher 
Spiritualism, which is one with pure Theism, as it 
acknowledges one infinite intelligence which loves all 
mankind alike. 

We have no doubt but your brother may care more 
for you than he does for any other person's brother ; 
your mother is, very probably, more interested in your 
welfare than in the welfare of some other woman's child ; 
no doubt you can commune with your particular friends 
and receive tokens of their identity, and be aided con- 
stantly by them ; but while all this may be perfectly 
true, it only constitutes the smaller circle ; it is a per- 
petuation of earthly relationship or of tribal and clan- 
nish affection : this may be perfectly well when included 
in the Divine Circle of universal fraternity, but it is 
altogether mischievous and misleading when excluded 
from that Divine Circle. 

We have no objection to people communing with their 
spirit friends and receiving assistance from them, nor 
have we the least doubt that numbers are guided to-day 
by individual spirit friends ; but when we pray in pres- 
ence of a public audience, where all states and condi- 
tions of men, women, and children may be represented, 
where there may be delegates from all nations, we should 



LECTURE XVI. 355 

not pray to our aunts, we should not address our invoca- 
tions to individual spirits who are limited in power and 
affection ; for while they can be communicated with, and 
can be helpful to us in our individual capacities, they 
are very likely to have private prejudices and personal 
feelings much as they had on earth. 

Now, if there is to be any true reform, that reform 
must be conducted on the basis of Theosophy. True 
Theosophy is Spiritualism, and true Spiritualism is 
Theosophy. The foundation of Theosophy is the recog- 
nition of universal brotherhood ; no more, no less. Ac- 
knowledge universal brotherhood, and you are a Theoso- 
phist in principle, for that is the whole foundation of 
Theosophy. You may build thereon a structure of gold, 
silver, and other valuable things, beautiful and useful, 
or you may build thereon a structure of hay and stubble 
which will be overturned as soon as the fires of adverse 
criticism approach it; but the foundation of Theoso- 
phy is always universal brotherhood, and universal 
brotherhood necessitates a recognition of one life princi- 
ple, one unitary spirit. 

Thus, while Spiritualism includes communion with 
individual minds and all the psychical associations we 
can possibly conceive of ; while it affirms " there is no 
death," that none are dead, but when our friends drop 
the mortal form, they only vanish from our personal 
sight, and are just as truly related to us and as near to 
us, and perhaps nearer and more intimately connected 
in spirit, than ever before, — while Spiritualism acknowl- 
edges all this, the acknowledgment of one Supreme 
Being is the inclusive acknowledgment of the unity of 



356 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

all life, and is the only foundation for the doctrine of 
universal brotherhood, which is the basis of all reform, 
as it is the basis of all reasonable science, religion, and 
philosophy. 

Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, acknowledged in Eng- 
land and elsewhere as one of the most eminent and 
instructive inspirational speakers who have appeared 
before the world in advocacy of Modern Spiritualism, 
states that through her mediumship there have been for- 
mulated five great propositions constituting a spiritual 
creed: the first is the fatherhood of God; the second, 
the brotherhood of man. Then she goes on to deal very 
forcibly with individual human responsibility, with a 
progressive life after death, and with spiritual communi- 
cation; but the foundation is the parenthood of Deity. 
Parenthood is an ampler word than fatherhood ; as it in- 
cludes the fatherhood and motherhood of Deity, there is 
the same difficulty with the word brotherhood, because 
we acknowledge sisterhood as well as brotherhood, and 
as we need a term for God which signifies the infinite 
father and mother, we need an idea of brotherhood 
which includes sisterhood : in these matters language is 
at present defective and needs enriching. 

But all wording aside, the idea is ever that of parent 
and child. The due acknowledgment of one Infinite 
Spirit is the great need of the age, as it is the founda- 
tion of all genuine reform. A lower form of spiritual 
thought is at the base of all theological errors and mis- 
representations. Calvin taught that God loved some 
people and hated others ; Calvin's God had some favor- 
ites, and some whom he had determined to damn forever. 



LECTURE XVI. 357 

Calvin's idea, no more than Mohammed's, which takes 
the same view, can ever be the basis of a universal 
religion. Many people declare that religion has been 
the cause of persecution ; we say that persecution comes 
from the acknowledgment that God loves some people 
and hates others. The acknowledgment that there is 
one Infinite Spirit who loves every one equally, and that 
we are all equally participants in the Divine care and 
recipients of the Divine influx, could never have lighted 
the fires of Smithfield or brought about the persecution 
of Catholics in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or burned 
witches at Salem in Massachusetts. 

If people to-day would acknowledge the one Infinite 
Spirit, and also use common sense, they would soon find 
that common sense is quite enough to convince them 
that persecution is indefensible, and that the acknowl- 
edgment of one Infinite Spirit never led to persecution. 
The worship of a Jewish God, who loved only Jews, led 
to persecution. Worship of a God who loved one church 
and not another, led to persecution; but the acknowl- 
edgment of one Infinite Spirit, in whose sight all are 
equal, in whom all live and move and have their being, 
not only can never lead to persecution, but is the only 
effectual means of its removal. 

If we believe in no Supreme Spirit, but have in place 
of one Infinite Being any number of finite intelligences 
who may all exercise their preferences, we retain all the 
objectionable features of religion and refuse its advan- 
tages. All that is unworthy and that leads to persecu- 
tion and cruelty could be preserved and presented under 
the name of. Spiritualism, but so soon as we acknowledge 



358 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the absolute oneness of the Infinite, and in consequence 
thereof the absolute oneness of all human life in the 
Infinite Being, then we can account for universal law ; 
then we can see why the order of the universe is un- 
changing ; then we can see how it is natural for us all 
to be good, powerful, wise, and noble ; why we should 
all love one another — love every one and hate no one ; 
why we should mete out to every one the same justice 
we desire meted out to ourselves. 

No matter how widely people may wander fi;om the 
literal word, if they pray in a spirit of universal love, 
they will receive an answer of blessing. If one prays 
that some one may leave him a sum of money, it is very 
uncertain whether he will get it or not. But if we ac- 
knowledge that the Infinite Spirit is equally interested 
in the welfare of all humanity, we cannot pray to the 
Supreme Being to dispose the minds of so-and-so to 
leave us their money, and vainly imagine that we may 
get it, because God may be fonder of us than of some 
others. The only intelligent prayer we can offer is, that 
we may be led so to conduct ourselves as to do the 
greatest good in our day and generation. We should 
pray for the universal welfare of mankind, and for our 
own individual welfare only as it is contributive to the 
general welfare. Some will ask, " What is the use of 
offering prayer? It cannot alter God nor change na- 
ture." Our answer is, Prayer improves and develops 
us ; prayer is for our benefit ; it is not intended to effect 
any alteration in the Infinite Spirit, or to change the 
order of nature. 

It really seems childish to occupy space in defending 



LECTURE XVI. 359 

what all can prove for themselves. If you never pray, 
you do not and cannot know whether prayer is answered 
or not, for you cannot prove anything rightly except as 
you yourself deal with it dispassionately ; and if you do 
not pray in the universal spirit, though you may say, 
" O God," you may be praying, not to the Eternal, but 
to some limited influence that represents God to your 
mind. 

Spiritualists and all others need to realize that the 
one Infinite Spirit of life, who is the essential life of 
all the universe, is the only proper object of adoration. 
We hear some very foolish and conceited people say 
that there is no power in the universe greater than 
themselves. We should advise those people to attack 
that immutable "law" which they acknowledge, and 
see whether it will break them or they will break it. 
All human intelligence evolves power, and power is 
ever measured by knowledge. The more we know, the 
more powerful we are ; the more our intelligence un- 
folds, the more control we have over the earth. Behind 
all phenomena, intelligence is the cause of all organiza- 
tion. Organization does not develop without intelli- 
gence which fashions organization, and organisms, which 
are expressions of intelligence, are ever modified and 
improved as the intelligence expressing through them 
gains more and more ascendency over the external 
form. 

Now, we should never ask any one to do anything he 
does not feel he can do conscientiously ; and while the 
word fool is a harsh word though employed in some 
versions of the Old Testament, we consider it perfectly 



360 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

legitimate to use the text when it appears in its revised 
form, " The foolish one has said in his heart, There is no 
God," because it is essentially foolish to say there is no 
God. Some people make a few scientific statements 
and directly afterward make a great many unscientific 
ones, and all are accepted as though they were scientific 
by people who do not reason or compare; if people 
would only bear in mind the proper definition of science, 
which is knowledge, there would be no farther difficulty 
on this point. " The foolish one has said in his heart, 
There is no God." The heart is not the intellect; it 
always stands for the affections : " Keep thy heart with 
all diligence, for out of it are all the issues of life." 
The heart is the seat of affection, and from affection 
the will proceeds : the wish, we say, is very often father 
to the thought. David, or whoever wrote the 14th 
Psalm, found that those who said in their heart, there is 
no God, were those who did not wish any God. We 
do not say that all atheists are insincere, for we have 
known many atheists (at least persons usually classed 
under that name) who were as sincere as any people 
we ever met, but such professed atheists were usually 
in a state of transitional revolt against hypocrisy, in 
matters pertaining to religion, of which they had unfor- 
tunately seen a great deal. 

While it is the foolish one who is ever saying in his 
heart there is no good, the wise one is always saying in 
his heart there is infinite good (saying there is good 
means speaking the word of good). You will find all 
through the Bible and in all occult writings, that the 
spoken word is alluded to as bringing everything to 



LECTURE XVI. 361 

pass. The Word which is spoken of in the first chapter 
of the fourth Gospel is not a personality, but the Divine 
proceeding influence ; the light which enlightens all ; 
the universal light ; the universal illumination ; the 
Word made manifest. The Word is the Divine intelli- 
gence in man made manifest through man; and when 
we allude to speaking spiritually, Ave mean expressing, 
sending out thought, conveying idea. When we speak, 
we let our voices flow out with the intention of convey- 
ing an idea, and whatsoever we say, whether we repeat 
words audibly, or simply allow our thoughts to go from 
our minds with no audible utterance, they always carry 
with them, wherever they travel, the nature of the 
thought whence they proceed. 

If you are in a loving frame of mind, you may say 
some things that sound a little unkind, but they will 
not harm any one ; but if you are feeling unpleasantly, 
and indulge in silent utterances, people who are sensitive 
feel they have been stabbed as with a dagger, and would 
very much rather you would show your weapon than 
conceal it. If you say anything in your heart, whatso- 
ever it may be, and your words of mouth do not harmo- 
nize with your thoughts, the words are distinctly not 
the bearers of tidings which you have outwardly ex- 
pressed, but are bearers in effect of tidings directly 
opposite ; what appear to be kindly words may be the 
cruelest of blows ; and all mediumistic people feel this 
keenly. A letter not apparently expressed in kindly 
language may do great good, being fraught with the 
invigorating breath of a noble mind, while the most 
sweetly worded epistle may sting like an adder. 



862 STUDIES I^ THEOSOPHY. 

The persons whom the Psalmist alluded to were not 
in the love of good, and so were endeavoring to per- 
suade themselves there was no good anywhere. On 
the basis of spiritual science, we must always affirm 
that all is good. There is the basis of reform. It is 
ridiculous to tell persons to be good if it is natural for 
them to be evil. It is natural for a fish to swim in 
water and for a bird to fly in air : thus it would be in- 
sane folly to blame a fish because it cannot fly, or a bird 
because it cannot swim ; but it would be just as unrea- 
sonable if persons are naturally bad to expect them to 
be good. If we base our idea of human nature upon 
the postulate that people are evil, if we are always 
telling them that they inherit evil and are by nature 
totally depraved, it is all in vain that we argue with 
ourselves, or others, to live lives of righteousness. 

What is the good of thundering from the Decalogue 
— " Thou shalt not steal " — at poor human nature, if 
it is natural to be dishonest. What is the use of a 
command, if one feels all the time that persons cannot 
execute it. Who would be so unreasonable as to ex- 
pect a person with no voice to sing finely ? We must 
acknowledge that man has the power to obey the 
Divine Law, or the intention of the Divine Will is ren- 
dered inconceivable. Therefore, take as the only basis, 
that man is good, pure, noble, and just. Spiritual 
science holds the essence of all reform, and it is indeed 
time that persons lay aside their old false methods, and 
endeavor to put the precepts of the Gospel into prac 
tice instead of allowing them to appear as impractically 
theoretical, or else denying them because they do not 



LECTURE XVI. 363 

understand them, owing to a lack of even attempted 
application. 

Take the ground that every one is essentially good ; 
bring up children to feel that they are good by nature ; 
never tell them it is natural to do wrong ; believe chil- 
dren good, and put them upon their honor ; hold them 
in thought as good ; expect them to be good ; before 
you leave them point out to them the work to fulfill 
during your absence ; do not tell them what not to do, 
but what to do ; give them credit for being capable of 
fulfilling useful works, and for possessing the disposi- 
tion to fulfill them. 

The basis of all reform is spiritual culture ; man is in 
the image of eternal good (not evil). To recognize 
good in man is the only way to reform, the only way to 
thoroughly protect society, as it is the only way to pre- 
vent disease — which is a great deal better than curing 
it ; the only way to prevent vice — which is a great 
deal better than punishing it. Every individual (even 
" the vilest sinner upon the face of the earth ") should 
be held as not only capable of good, but as desirous of 
doing good. For this reason, we can most conscien- 
tiously endorse the efforts of the Nationalists who are 
establishing clubs all over the country, using Edward 
Bellamy's " Looking Backward" as a text-book, because 
Mr. Bellamy, in that thoroughly practical story, points 
out that the only way of abolishing the competitive sys- 
tem and of developing an intelligent system of co-opera- 
tion, is not by incendiarism, anarchy, or any form of 
aggression or onslaught, but through an appeal to the 
divinity in human nature. If we want to make people 



364 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

good in action, we must acknowledge that they are good 
at the core, though they may need to be assisted in doing 
good ; but instead of that, society insists that they are 
evil. San Francisco has an " Industrial School " which 
the Evening Report of that city denounced, because the 
influences and associations in that school are neither 
reformatory nor industrial ; for, instead of teaching weak 
youth to live nobly, they surround undeveloped children, 
prone to error, with the very vicious influences they 
should be shielded from, and then people wonder why 
they are worse when they are turned out of the institu- 
tion than they were when they went in. If you culti- 
vate weeds, and do all in your power to bring them to 
perfection, you need not be astonished if they grow very 
luxuriantly, and you need not say the soil is bad because 
it bears nothing but weeds. If you have been cultivat- 
ing weeds by mistake, thinking that a weed in its germ 
is a flower when you cannot tell the difference in its 
earlier growth, even though you do this in ignorance, 
you will get a crop of weeds. Now, we do not say that 
hospitals, houses of correction, penitentiaries, and indus- 
trial schools have not had for their object the protection 
of society, — the popular feeling is in the direction of try- 
ing to protect society, — but we do say that the present 
course is an entirely mistaken one. Sinners need to be 
associated with saints, and it is only a saint who can 
very safely associate with sinners. Instead of sinners 
being put with sinners and saints with saints, let the 
saints go among the sinners and reform them, and let 
the sinners go among the saints and get reformed. If 
sinners are led to know that they are capable of a better 



LECTURE XVI. 365 

life, and that there is a better way open for them, they 
will only be too glad, with better associations than those 
of old, to take the upward instead of the downward 
grade. 

A great many people divide society into two parts or 
sections, as though some people were all divine and 
others all diabolical ; but those who mingle with man- 
kind at large find the worst and the best specimens of 
human nature equally among millionaires and among 
people who have not a dollar to their name. Some 
people wretchedly poor are the noblest and purest one 
can meet ; others are as degraded as they can well be. 
We do not denounce capitalists, but we do denounce 
selfishness ; we do not denounce any class of people and 
say that all the black sheep are in one fold, for in every 
fold there are black sheep and white sheep ; but all black 
sheep can be made to shed their wool, and, if properly 
fed, new wool will grow out white. 

When we work to develop good, we develop as a result 
a new shell or skin, and having no use for the old, we 
let it go ; it will cast itself aside. All good writers on 
phrenology declare that there can be no reform except 
through the stimulation of the faculties we wish to 
see developed. Man is good at the core. Human 
nature is naturally good; goodness is natural to all 
mankind. Deep below all debris of error, below all 
incrustations of folly and vice, there is divinity in every 
human soul ; acknowledge it, speak to it, and it will 
respond. 



LECTURE XVII. 

THE ATTITUDE OF THEOSOPHY TOWARD SPIRITUALISM 
AND ALL THE GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

Do Theosophists admit communion with the spirit 
world ? is a question which troubles many and occasions 
much controversy. 

There is in many quarters a decided misapprehension 
as to what Theosophy really teaches on this point. 
Theosophy does not approve of "business mediumship," 
but neither do many earnest and ardent Spiritualists, 
of whom may be mentioned Professor Kiddle of New 
York. Communion with the spirit world for mundane 
advantage is attended with grave risks and dangers. 
Theosophists hold that passive mediumship should be 
superseded by spiritual illumination, which is certainly 
very different from automatic mediumship. Mediumis- 
tic power is not necessarily associated with intellectual 
vigor or moral excellence ; it is often nothing more than 
mesmeric sensitiveness, the medium serving as a ther- 
mometer to register the condition of the passing hour. 
We must advance higher and cultivate genuine spiritual 
gifts. If we cultivate our spiritual nature, we cannot 
help seeing into the spiritual world and enjoying spirit- 
ual revelation. When any one drags mediumship down 
to the level of a money-making business, or abuses it 



LECTUKE XVII. 367 

to gratify idle curiosity, such communion with the in- 
visible world is invariably detrimental to all concerned. 
Theosophy urges such Spiritualists as do thus to look 
higher, and all the best writers on Spiritualism teach 
the same. We must make an effort to cultivate and 
spiritualize ourselves instead of seeking to bring the 
spirit world down to earth and materializing it. While 
our own mental development is confined to a sensuous, 
phenomenal plane, we are subject to dangers and mis- 
takes of every description. We do not intend to advo- 
cate Materialism with another name. The more fully 
a spirit is delivered from earthly affections and interest 
in earthly affairs, the more that spirit is satisfied to live 
in a purely spiritual state of being, holding communion 
through spiritual affinity with man's higher spiritual 
principle rather than through physical phenomena. 
We know of widows who have no desire for sensuous 
communication with departed husbands, for they tell 
us when they enjoy an unbroken night's sleep they feel 
themselves with their loved ones in a boundless spiritual 
world. They cannot fully remember the superior state 
when in mortal consciousness, but they feel on w T aking 
that they have only just returned from a visit to hus- 
band and children ; they sometimes hear themselves 
saying " good-bye " to their spiritual associates on wak- 
ing. This is true spiritual communion and permits of 
no deception and no intermission ; nothing can break 
this union, — no, not any number of terrestrial embodi- 
ments. Theosophy is a high phase of Spiritualism, and 
there is no contradiction or discrepancy between the 
two. When we see only a little of Theosophy, it may 



368 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

appear to us hostile to Spiritualism, but when we study 
it more thoroughly we see no conflict whatever. Spirit- 
ualism should mean communion with the spirit world 
through the unfoldment of our spiritual nature. An 
ordinary mistaken idea of mediumship is that for all 
information and guidance in mundane affairs we are 
abjectly dependent on extraneous intelligences. Theos- 
ophy claims that we can all develop independent clair- 
voyance and psychometric power to some degree, — not 
in all instances equally, however. We shall not want 
another spirit to show us the spiritual world when we 
have the use of our spiritual eyes, which comes with the 
development of our sixth sense. We endorse medium- 
istic power as supplementary, but not as substitutionary. 
Rightly understood it means voluntary spiritual co- 
operation, not arbitrary coercive control over one mind 
by another. Mediums should live what they are inspired 
to teach. True Theosophy acknowledges that we can 
receive much from the spirit world that we can obtain 
in no other way, but we must cultivate ourselves to do 
so. We are living to-day as spiritual beings in a spirit- 
ual world ; and while with our physical eyes we behold 
matter, with our inward eyes we can look upon an in- 
terior universe. Concerning the " astral " world, the 
astral interpenetrates the physical. If we see a dog's 
footprint on the floor, it is not necessary that we see 
a dog enter or leave a room to know that a dog has 
been there. On seeing a human footprint we can judge 
about how large the person is who made it. Similarly 
on the astral atmosphere, every thought makes its im- 
pression ; our thoughts and desires all leave prints on 



LECTURE XVII. 369 

the astral "sands of time." A seer can see these thought- 
impressions as with our physical eyes we can track foot- 
prints across the snow. A clairvoyant is merely one 
who can look on the astral atmosphere and see what is 
reflected there. All material forms are results of astral 
vibrations, which in their turn are due to spiritual vibra- 
tions ; spirit is force and life per se. In a descending 
chromatic scale nature slides down in man from atma 
to spiritual soul, from spiritual soul to intellectual soul, 
thence to astral body, and from astral body to material 
body; the astral realm is intermediary between the 
spiritual and the physical. Both Spiritualists and The- 
osophists have grasped the fact that the "disembodied" 
can commune with man and produce all kinds of psychic 
phenomena. The trained occultist can command a table 
to move, and it will move in obedience to his will. Peo- 
ple often attribute wonderful powers and much wisdom 
to "spirits" which they in large measure possess in them- 
selves. We need to discover the psychical powers em- 
bodied in us, and we must not imagine that death will 
give us anything, neither will it deprive us of anything 
really ours. The odic (all-pervading) force in the uni- 
verse we can all discover and understand ; it is not un- 
knowable. We have not yet discovered anything like 
all the power we possess to produce psychic phenomena ; 
but there is a great difference between the conscious illu- 
mination of the adept and the unconscious passivity of 
the medium ; the latter is certainly the lower condition. 
If through passivity we receive spiritual tidings, and 
a message cannot be verified, we have to take another's 
word for its verity, and though the words may be beauti- 



370 studies i:n t theosophy. 

ful and helpful in some instances, they may not be all 
true ; but when we have developed our own psychic 
powers there can be no room for doubt, because though 
still in the body, we can look into and travel in the 
spirit world. If we could only remember the astral 
excursions we often make in our nocturnal rambles, 
we should learn that every time we are sound asleep 
we visit our " spirit home " ; we travel in our astral 
body here, there, and everywhere. One who has devel- 
oped his higher principle can consciously pass the exter- 
nal barrier and roam at will in the astral world. When 
we are in a condition of spiritual receptivity, we hear 
from our spirit friends as we now hear from one an- 
other on earth, and we can see them as plainly as we 
see each other's bodies; tidings of them are then no 
longer hypothetical. Let us add to our belief faith, 
and to our faith spiritual knowledge; then we shall in 
our relations with " departed" friends know nothing 
of even a thin veil between us. 

Our opinion of spiritualistic phenomena is that phe- 
nomena when genuine are often unsatisfactory and 
ambiguous. Human conditions are such that the astral 
light in which clairvoyants see is usually so perturbed 
that they cannot see clearly, and so get only a confused 
vision of one's surroundings. Societies for spiritual 
culture and the unfoldment of psychic powers should 
be formed in private homes; promiscuous developing 
circles are not desirable. A large percentage of the 
entire human family can develop psychic power to a 
wonderful degree. Let every one allow his spiritual 
nature full scope, put away all prejudice, and invite 



LECTURE XVII. 371 

the soul to declare itself. We do not repudiate me- 
diumistic phenomena, but desire to develop mediumship 
to the plane of a high order of intelligence. The astral 
world is as full of cemeteries as the earth is ; for as the 
spirit passes to a higher life, the astral body is left be- 
hind in the astral sphere, as the physical body is left 
behind in this sphere, where it gradually disintegrates as 
the higher principle recedes entirely from it. All physi- 
cal vital force emanates from the astral body; the astral 
body can suffer the amputation of its members, but the 
spiritual body is always intact. Our higher spiritual 
principle is in the spirit world always. Phenomena are 
only valuable when demonstrative of truth. Theoso- 
phy is intended to bring people into higher relation with 
those spiritual forces of the universe that exist within 
ourselves as well as all around us. " The proper study 
of mankind is man." Theosophy aims at the elevation 
of man to a spiritual plane of consciousness and love 
while here on earth. Unlimited progress hereafter is 
assured for every spirit. 

All the elements are peopled with spirits ; there is 
nothing without its spirit ; to use kabbalistic terms, no 
fire without its presiding Salamanders, no water with- 
out its Undines, no earth without Gnomes, or air with- 
out Sylphs. Man contains these four elements within 
himself. The salamanders correspond to his affections, 
the undines to his reason, the sylphs to his imagination, 
and the gnomes to his animal passions. If men gratify 
their lower instincts they attract these lower forces, and 
herein lies the true philosophy of ghosts and appari- 
tions. The miser has united himself with the spirits of 



372 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

earth ; for by the worship of gold in thought, and per- 
petual striving for wealth, we come under the dominion 
of the elementary forces of the plane invoked. If we 
live in thought on the animal plane, we cannot absorb 
or respond to spiritual truth. What do we know of 
life immortal when we keep the spiritual in the back- 
ground and the physical in the ascendant ? Were such 
a one to pass out of the physical form, he would be 
entirely out of his sphere, and would find himself in a 
state he could not enjoy were he miraculously translated 
to heaven. Theosophy points out two paths, as Jesus 
showed them, — the broad way with many travelers, and 
the narrow way with but few going along it. Jesus 
was undoubtedly a prince among Theosophists. Occult 
records inform us, that between the ages of twelve 
and thirty, he traveled extensively, visiting in Egypt, 
Persia, India, etc., the most powerful lodges on earth, 
as one of their greatest and most glorious teachers. 
Christians accept Jesus, and blindly reject Gautama; 
but no comparison need be instituted between the two, 
as their teachings were exactly the same. If any Chris- 
tian thinks he would benefit by becoming a Buddhist, 
he makes a great mistake, for the two religions, Bud- 
dhism and Christianity, when esoterically studied, are 
found identical. The great importance of the Oriental 
aspect of Theosophy is that it is breaking down the 
wall of prejudice which has so long existed between the 
East and the West. Popular Christianity has contended 
that the poor East could have no gospel unless the 
West carried it there ; the East is reciprocating, and 
showing the West its meed of truth. The East is, in 



LECTURE XVII. 373 

some respects, more privileged than the West, for dur- 
ing several thousands of years Asia represented the 
highest development of civilization. In coming epochs 
the West will be the great center of spiritual activity. 
Theosophy is not an exotic that belongs to any special 
clime, but is everywhere an indigenous plant, true 
religion being the same in every clime and age ; but 
Western minds are somewhat dependent on the East to 
teach them certain things, as children are dependent on 
those already educated, in matters concerning which 
they are as yet ignorant; but every one becomes a 
teacher in his turn. If Mahatrnas, Chelas, and other 
mystics are your instructors in occult wisdom, they 
enjoy no prerogative that others do not share, they only 
help their younger brethren to become educated like 
themselves ; they prepare pupils to interpret universal 
mysteries, and to use occult power aright. Only a few 
are willing to go in at the narrow gate, while the many 
enter the broad gate of fashion. There is no reason 
why any of us should not some day interpret all mys- 
teries for ourselves, the only hindrance to our doing so 
is that theosophical study requires of us a kind of life 
many do not wish to live. How many would take as 
much time and trouble, or make as many sacrifices to 
attain spiritual good, as did Kepler, Copernicus, or 
Galileo, to demonstrate a problem in external nature? 
and yet all could live a truly happy life, engaged in the 
acquisition of divine wisdom. All the ways of wisdom 
are ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. What- 
ever one has to give up is something really not worth 
having ; the pleasures of earth are counterfeit ; its gold, 



374 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

though glittering, is mere tinsel ; its acquisition never 
brings solid happiness as it is the outcome of selfishness, 
which is a vice. Self-cultui*e can be consecrated to the 
highest ends, selfishness never. Subordinate all love of 
self to love of neighbor and of God. Work for Truth 
and for humanity with all your might, — these are the 
only imperative and universal rules for neophytes. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see 
God," say all the masters. The sight of God means 
spiritual perception, the discovery of the Divine Being. 
Man is as invisible as God, in whose image and likeness 
he is made ; the only true man is the invisible man. 
What is God ? There must necessarily be mystery con- 
cerning the Divine Indwelling Presence. All we know 
about God we learn in our higher realm of life ; only 
the higher consciousness of man can realize an Infinite 
Good Being who rules over all. If eveiy one who 
doubts the being of God could enter into a state of 
mind in which he felt absolutely certain that everything 
was for the best, without a ripple of doubt passing 
through his mind, would he not actually see God with 
the eye of the soul, as an all-satisfying, all-consolatory 
reality, as he felt sure that everything was in the hand 
of infinite love and wisdom, all vessels safely conducted 
into port, piloted by a perfectly skillful and loving 
commander? If trust in supreme goodness were per- 
fect, how our minds would rest, free from misery of 
every sort. The soul finds perfect peace in realizing 
God. Intuition in a higher state of existence is devel- 
oped as it never is on earth. As our mental horizon 
widens, our reason confirms and comprehends what our 



LECTURE XVII. 375 

intuition apprehends first. When we find God in our- 
selves we shall be satisfied. When we have positively 
found our own soul, we have found God ; but knowl- 
edge of the soul comes only through spiritual influx. 
In spite of all materialistic negations, there is more 
proof of the soul's immortality than there is of any 
demonstrated scientific fact, as the realization of immor- 
tality is far more universal than acquaintance with any 
physical science. 

Theosophy alone can answer the great need of the 
world, which is that all nations should recognize their 
brotherhood, which unfortunately they do not, for the 
most civilized still follow in the track of barbarians, and 
look upon those from whom they are separated by physi- 
cal barriers as foreigners; the peace of the world is 
thus delayed. Nations contend with one another not 
only for territory and other possessions, but also for 
intellectual differences and divers theologies ; these 
struggles are not confined to earth's inhabitants alone, 
but, as St. Paul said, we do not only war with flesh and 
blood, but with invisible principalities and powers, with 
unseen hosts. Christianity has long outgrown its primi- 
tive recognition of a variety of unseen influences con- 
tinually attendant upon individuals and nations, but 
according to all ancient theologies every one has per- 
sonal attending influences, as well as household " lares 
et penates " ; every form in nature has also its represen- 
tative in the unseen world, and every nation its presid- 
ing divinity. Jehovah, in the narrow sense, was not 
the God of the world, but exclusively the God of Israel, 
as Zeus was the God of the Greeks, and under the name 



376 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Jupiter, of the Romans also ; all primitive nations had 
their spiritual hierarchs devoted to their special cause ; 
and to them the people offered oblations in their sanctu- 
aries, that these unseen powers might fight their battles ; 
their ideas were always of gods and lords many. All 
early religions were forms of Spiritualism, as they all 
recognized spirits around them, some higher, some lower, 
who could serve and bless them. The Semitic races 
had, however, a glorious conception of an Infinite in- 
dwelling as well as over-ruling Spirit, who found his 
dwelling-place in the hearts and minds of humanity, 
while the Aryan races made much of- spiritual commu- 
nion. The peculiar trait of all Semitic people was their 
turning to the still small Voice of God within. The 
Chaldean religion blended both the Aryan and Semitic 
characteristics, as it recognized individual spiritual com- 
munion between finite intelligences and also the voice 
of God in the soul ; this dual conception is everywhere 
prevalent to-day. If any one seeks for divine wisdom, 
he must recognize God as dwelling in humanity. There 
can be no universal prosperity till all nations unite in 
harmony. Theosophy is a moral, ethical, humanitarian 
movement; as soon as we feel that we are one in 
spirit, we shall know that all men are brothers; we 
cannot then behave any longer as if we were not all 
children of one God. Ethical culture and moral re- 
form will build the structure of universal freedom ; and 
the present theosophical movement in the minds of 
men is the sure and certain harbinger of this glorious 
consummation. 

We can hardly think of a very sensuous person as 



LECTURE XVII. 377 

highly intellectual ; or if so, he is not intellectual in con- 
sequence of animality, but in spite of it. The animal 
impulse does not naturally seek expression in literature 
or art. The intellectual and moral principles, however, 
completely harmonize. A person can easily possess at 
the same time, moral and intellectual nobility, and be 
simultaneously engaged in benevolence, literature, and 
art ; there can always be a dual expression of the soul, 
as spirit manifests itself in love and wisdom. The ma- 
jority have only developed their intellectual principle, 
and therefore have no conception of the divine, and 
only a glimmering consciousness of the spiritual. Such 
have but feeble understanding of Truth ; they may cling 
to creeds, beliefs, and theories, but all opinions when 
compared with knowledge are as twilight to sunshine ; 
for even when pure and ennobling, they are not demon- 
strable. When the spiritual principle is developed, 
through which the divine can shine, we shall no longer 
need any one to teach us, for we shall then receive 
unction from the Holy One within. The personified 
Christ, or Buddha, is one perfectly developed both in 
his intellectual and moral nature ; the highest intel- 
lect and purest morality in such a one are jointly 
unfolded. There is no perfect expression of the soul 
except in masculine and feminine form ; the intellect 
and moral nature, when perfectly united, constitute true 
spiritual marriage. Gautama occupied in India the 
same relation to mankind that Jesus occupied 550 years 
later in Palestine. Once in about every 600 years, there 
is a revival of spirituality somewhere on earth ; then 
a greater revival every 2170 years, or thereabouts, as 



378 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

there are twelve dispensations in each grand cycle of 
nearly 26,000 years. About 600 years after Jesus, Ma- 
homet inaugurated the faith of Islam, one of the great- 
est religious systems of the world to-day ; 600 years 
later, the Waldenses and others proclaimed a spiritual 
form of Christianity, and at the present time there are 
many unmistakable indications of a new spiritual dis- 
pensation on earth. 

We will here append two short essays on Theosophy 
from our psychological romance, " Onesimus Toole," 
serving to show the very slight difference which really 
exists between Theosophists of the Christian and Bud- 
dhistic schools. 

This essay was written to enforce the beauty of a 
Theosophy, which does not require allegiance to the 
religion of India in any particular manner. 

Theosophy is the master-key to eternal life ; to the understand- 
ing of God and man. True Theosophy concerns itself exclusively 
with man's spiritual development, with the finding of the Christ 
within, the Divine Logos or Word of the Eternal. When we find 
God within, where Jesus and Buddha alike say God resides, we truly 
realize our divine nature. Genuine Theosophy is to this genera- 
tion the Christ of truth rising out of the tomb of error ; it teaches 
complete self-control, the crucifixion of the senses, the liberation 
of the spirit from all carnal passion, the resurrection of all that 
is divine within us. Theosophy is complete spiritual science. 
Knowledge of the eternal is the only true science. To know the 
Christ is to hear the living Word which speaks in us from Infinite 
Divine Being. When spirit is revealed, henceforth we have no 
thought of death. The true Theosophist drinks in inspiration 
from the ever-present spiritual life, the universe thus becomes 
to him an open book. We must outgrow false ideas of sacer- 
dotalism, and become each one a true priest ; our daily sacrifice 



LECTURE XVII. 379 

must be the daily surrender of our lower appetites to our higher 
promptings. 

The principles of Theosophy are love, wisdom, and truth, which 
reveal to us in measure as we can understand it the absolute purity 
and perfection of the divine nature. Theosophy is universal truth 
and universal religion ; it is demonstrated spiritual science, and 
holds the key to all sciences and religions. In Theosophy we 
behold the essential unity of all religions ; Theosophists should 
study all religions, but dogmatically enforce none. What does 
religion really mean ? Religio signifies to bind together, but does 
not imply a condition of bondage other than that bondage in 
which the lower nature is held subject to the higher. This is 
truly atonement or reconciliation, the perfect harmony of all the 
elements in human nature. Religion does not consist in belief in 
immortality, or in God. Belief saves no one for it is merely intel- 
lectual assent given to certain dogmas. One can believe in religion 
and be devilish. The devils, it is said, believe and tremble. We 
can be so intellectually unfolded as to believe in God without being 
in the least developed in our truly spiritual nature. 

What does resurrection mean in our individual lives ? It means 
a rising from the death of the lower nature to a condition of spirit- 
ual triumph. Nothing dies in reality, only in seeming. The seed 
is not quickened unless it undergoes the appearance of death, and 
there is no quickening of the spirit unless there is in appearance a 
death of the lower nature ; then from the sepulcher the rock is 
rolled away, a symbol of our new birth to a knowledge of Truth. 
Theosophy, like all true religion, is the science of right living, and 
is in no sense a sacerdotal system. Divine wisdom is the whole 
world's only religion for the future ; a religion which meets every 
want and fully satisfies every lawful craving of human emotion as 
well as intellect. 

The Divine Being is necessarily beyond the comprehension of 
the mind of man. Man is not equal to God ; there is therefore a 
mystery attaching to God in the human mind. That which is on 
our level we may explain, whatever is beyond that level remains 
unsolved ; God alone understands God, as man alone can compre- 
hend man. As Deity is infinitely above us, so Deity is beyond all 



880 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

definition. The soundest metaphysicians never undertake to define 
Deity. Agnosticism is a confession of honest men whose intellects 
are unable to solve the problem of being. Theosophists need not 
conflict with Huxley or Spencer. All divine things are unknow- 
able to the senses, but Theosophy teaches there is a spiritual 
intuition by which we can arrive at some knowledge of spirit, 
though to our researches there can be no end. Intellectually we 
find not God, but energy, power, force. The word God means the 
All-Good, the Good One, nothing more, nothing less. 

Plato's immortal assertion, " God geometrizes," does not imply 
Plato's acknowledgment of anything more than infinite Mind ; no 
kind, loving God appears in that sentence. Infinite power might 
be cruel. Many people know nothing of God though they profess 
to believe in God ; but not until they advance beyond belief do 
they find the Eternal. Belief implies that some school is the 
custodian of special intelligence from Deity, whose testimony is 
accepted by the disciples as final authority. The word Testament 
means something one leaves behind him when he is gone away ; 
while the testator liveth, such documents are of no effect. People 
who know nothing of God but what they read in the Bible, con- 
cerning which venerable book we would indeed utter nothing 
disrespectful, believe in a God who has left a Testament. Practi- 
cally it is so to them. Many Christians believe in a God very 
far from this world and in no direct way concerned with human 
affairs. There was, they believe, a time when God spoke to the 
world, but He speaks no longer ; God, for them, has finished writ- 
ing His book, and has delivered the published volume completed 
into their hands. How utterly incongruous is this mental attitude 
with the teachings of Jesus : " He hath been with you and shall be 
in you." It is expedient that I go away, for when I have vanished 
from your sight the Paraclete will be nearer to you than ever 
before, and will gradually lead you into all truth. The disciples 
were directed not to receive truth through any written revelation, 
but entirely by means of the ever-living presence of the Holy Spirit 
within them. Theosophy places every individual soul on the solid 
rock of experienced truth on which Theosophy itself is based. We 
must build our social temple on the rock of impartial justice, which 



LECTURE XVII. 381 

we can never find until we discover it in ourselves. Enlighten- 
ment is a matter of individual spiritual unfoldment ; God is Love 
and Wisdom ; absolute Justice is the infinite principle of Life. 
As we act divinely do we perceive a revelation of divine wisdom 
in our own lives, and all knowledge of wisdom proceeds from the 
love of good in us, which is the only divine love. Only when we 
act from a motive of love directed toward good are our acts truly 
wise. 

Man's best conception of Deity is that God is love. Love is the 
highest element in the human soul, and is inseparable from charity, 
which is love in expression. 

Henry James (an earnest student of Swedenborg ; not the 
novelist) declares in his admirable work, " Society the Redeemed 
Form of Man," that in studying the problem of life one comes to 
see ever more and more distinctly that the only possible cause of 
creation is that God being pure love he cannot love himself. Love 
must have an object, and this object is humanity. Creation, then, 
is the result of the divine love seeking object and expression. By 
humanity, of course, we do not mean exclusively the inhabitants 
of this one little planet. We need not tell you that the earth is 
not the universe. We mean all intelligent inhabitants of all worlds 
together, which unitedly constitute the form of the divine man or 
the progeny of God, which is without beginning and without end. 

The true hidden wisdom is to be found in our own inmost 
selves, not in books or scrolls. God's living word is man, who is 
the highest expression of nature. The hidden wisdom from our 
own souls must come to us through development of our own inner 
nature, and can come in no other way. Theosophy does not de- 
pend on legend, or our belief in historical personalities, or the 
truth contained in any sacred books. It rests on its own intrinsic 
value, and appeals to our moral nature. If Buddha and Jesus 
never lived, their teachings are no less valuable to man. Precious 
stones have intrinsic value, and truth is aptly compared to a price- 
less pearl. 

All divine teaching is demonstrated in its hallowing influence 
exerted on human life. Judge the tree by its fruits. Bring all 
theories to the touch-stone of expediency. Were we to find that 



m 

382 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the teachings of the Vedas when lived up to caused war and hatred 
to vanish from the earth, we should thereby know the source 
whence these streams sprang to be a fountain of living water, able 
to slake the spiritual thirst of mankind. 

There is nothing in the Yedas that we do not find in the New 
Testament. The teachings attributed to Buddha and Jesus are 
identical. We can well dispense with controversy when we drink 
from inspiration. Whether we look to Gautama or any other his- 
toric avatar of India, or to Jesus, the historic light of Palestine, 
or to Orisses, the legendary messiah of Egypt, we must never forget 
that neither Orisses, Christ, or Buddha, or what they typify, is dead 
and buried. In spirit Jesus is working now as actively as when 
he was on earth. The truth Buddha and Orisses revealed is still 
operating in the world. 

" Why seek ye the living among the dead ? " Why watch by a 
sepulcher, when you can converse with the living spirit on the 
highways of life ? When we liberate our intuition the sun within 
us sheds around our path its bright beams of appreciable light and 
heat. 

Those who bathe in the sunlight hourly appropriate its rays. 
Not those who have analyzed the water or tested the depth of the 
well, but those who drink the water of life reap its benefits. Not- 
our historic knowledge of a revelation of truth, but our assimila- 
tion of it profits us. We must eat, drink, and appropriate the 
living spirit of truth, which is ever active throughout the universe. 
The past has risen in the present. We must live to-day, not wor- 
shipf ully regretting days of old. Our present at-one-ment with the 
living Christ of the spirit can alone bring us into consciousness of 
Truth. The truths of spirit are not apprehended by the intellect 
first, but by intuition ; later on, reason grapples with inward reve- 
lation and defines it. Be guided entirely by your individual intui- 
tion ; be ever honest and intensely earnest in your search for truth, 
and you will each one of you discover all it is needful for you to 
know. 

Races of Mahatmas may have spent ages in ferreting out the 
truths of the universe, but their existence is not positively known 
to Buddhists. Truth is revealed only to those who are in a con- 



LECTURE XVII. 383 

dition to appreciate it. There is probably no reluctance on the 
part of any genuine Mahatmas to reveal themselves, but no one can 
create eyes in us to see Truth even if it visits us. 

When Edwin Arnold revisited India, he held conferences with 
the Buddhists of Ceylon, and received from them a very compli- 
mentary address, eulogizing him as a true interpreter of the San- 
skrit philosophy. His work, " The Light of Asia," they endorsed 
with much affection. Conversing with them of the Mahatmas, he 
was told that the priests knew nothing of the existence of such 
people. They could not be found, though they were so famous in 
Europe and America. At the same time these Buddhists affirmed 
that there were many teachings in the Sanskrit which, if followed 
out, would develop men into the state of Mahatmas. 

The Buddhists themselves think Arnold's faithful and magnifi- 
cent portrayal of the career of Buddha has done more than any- 
thing else to recall the attention of the Hindu people to a percep- 
tion of the beauties enshrined in the Buddhistic religion, and it 
affords a powerful incentive to them to live up to these teachings. 

We hear a great deal of Indian degradation, and particularly 
much of woman's degraded condition there. Now it cannot be 
disputed that many women in India are in a state of gross degra- 
dation, but this condition exists in spite of the teachings of the 
Sanskrit philosophy (which leads logically to the purest elevation 
of mankind), not in consequence of their religion. All the vices of 
Christendom are rebuked in Scripture, and yet tolerated in Chris- 
tian communities. No charge can be brought against the Buddhist 
religion for the vices of Asia that cannot be brought against every 
other religion on earth. 

As the religion of India is set forth in its sacred books, it is a 
religion of the greatest purity and noblest wisdom. ~No one who 
compares the ten great religions of the world, the one with the 
others, will fail to find Buddhism the most humanitarian, and 
Brahmanism the most metaphysical of all the systems. Buddha 
taught that nothing and no one can come between us and God. 

We are, according to his philosophy, our own high priests, medi- 
ators, and intercessors, absolutely free to discover truth for our- 
selves by following in the path marked out by our own intuition 



384 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

which gives " Thus saith the indwelling Spirit " as final authority. 
Too many people unfortunately are not contented without some 
external lord or master to obey ; they require some one to do their 
thinking for them instead of appealing directly to the Lord within 
their own hearts, so as to receive Truth from the source of all 
Truth. It is only to awaken spiritual thought and intellectual 
enquiry that we study Theosophy, not to induce allegiance to some 
hierarchy of India, for to the Christian world " follow Jesus " is as 
necessary as "follow Buddha " can be to Orientals. 

The following essay was compiled in defense of the 
views put forward by Madame Blavatsky : — 

While an immense amount of floating opinion is at the present 
time circulating on the subject of Theosophy, there are compara- 
tively but very few persons who have set themselves the task of so 
simplifying the tenets of Theosophy as to make the main doctrines 
clearly intelligent to the Western mind. The word Theosophy, 
which signifies neither more nor less than divine wisdom, is by no 
means exclusively confined to ancient Hinduism ; it is a term prop- 
erly applicable to all that can legitimately be termed knowledge of 
the spiritual universe. Theosophy in its modern form is constantly 
associated with the name of H. P. Blavatsky, because that most 
industrious Russian lady has done more than any other one indi- 
vidual to ransack the treasure-houses of Eastern scripture, and to 
bring forth the truth therein contained for the edification of Euro- 
peans and Americans. 

Most students of Asiatic lore have been either Christian apolo- 
gists or confirmed skeptics. Their previous training and fixed 
habit of thought have therefore largely disqualified them for an 
unprejudiced performance of their task. Madame Blavatsky, on 
the other hand, has searched the records, not with a view to prove 
certain foregone propositions, or to discover fraud and folly in the 
documents under review, but to honestly express the information 
therein contained. Her latest work, " The Secret Doctrine," amply 
proves the honesty of her endeavor and the ability she brings to 
the work. But some of our Christian friends will inquire, Why go 



LECTURE XVII. 385 

to the Yedas for the truths we can find so perfectly revealed in the 
New Testament? Why speak of Gautama when we have before 
us the example of Jesus? The answer to such inquiry is twofold. 
1st, The New Testament deals almost exclusively with ethics. Its 
moral code is indeed unsurpassed, but on questions of science it is 
silent. Now the Hindu records are not simply moral text books, 
they are scientific treatises, as any one who intelligently peruses 
them will soon discover. 2d, There is a widespread feeling in 
Christendom that beyond the pale of Christianity all is heathen 
darkness. Such a belief renders well nigh impossible any effectual 
carrying out of the fundamental basis of Theosophy — the universal 
brotherhood of man. 

Theosophy does not require of any one who embraces it a sur- 
render of the Christian religion, so far as its basis in the New 
Testament is concerned ; at the same time it cannot allow that any 
one book, or any one people, or any one system, can embody all 
the divine wisdom known upon earth. The Bible, from Genesis 
to Revelation, teaches the cardinal doctrines of Theosophy without 
amplifying them very clearly or extendedly. These doctrines cer- 
tainly include what are commonly called "Karma" and " Reincar- 
nation," teachings which simply need clear and cogent reasoning 
to make them appear thoroughly rational and scientific, and, above 
all, consistent with man's highest conception of divine, impartial 
justice. 

The Oriental wisdom religion does not acknowledge any fall of 
man in the orthodox Christian sense. It teaches the involution of 
spirit and consequent evolution of matter, and in the exposition of 
this theory it accounts for all the anomalies visible in the external 
world by attributing them to the experimental efforts of intelligent 
spiritual units to make themselves manifest. In consonance with 
the teachings of the Kabbala and other occult works of olden time, 
Theosophy teaches that the external universe is an expression of 
finite intelligences, necessarily limited in power and wisdom, but 
continually subject to the law of progress. These intelligences 
begin at the foot of the ladder of expression and work their way 
diligently but gradually to the top ; thus the theory of transmigra- 
tion is inverted in a manner very favorably regarded by Rev. J. F, 



386 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Clarke in his " Ten Great Religions," and many other liberal and 
learned authors. 

Reincarnation is usually ridiculously misunderstood. People 
who utterly fail to comprehend it talk an unlimited amount of 
nonsense concerning another spirit usurping the body of a new- 
born child, and much similar folly, while Theosophy explains how 
a soul awaiting embodiment introduces itself into earthly expres- 
sion at the moment of conception by itself breathing the breath 
of life into the primal germ. In other words, conception is the 
result of spirit seeking expression through an appropriate material 
medium. 

Karma only means sequence, or the unvarying operation of the 
law of cause and effect. Our present Karma is the effect of all our 
past career, remembered or seemingly forgotten. Whatever trials 
or difficulties we now confront come to us to try us because of our 
moral, mental, and physical condition being what it is; and it 
necessarily is what it is at any given moment as a result of our 
past thinking, speaking, and acting. 

The doctrine of Karma is not fatalism, for it does not teach us 
that all our lives are mapped out for us by the sovereign decree of 
inexorable fate ; it simply declares the universal law which ordains 
that certain effects must ever proceed from certain causes; thus, 
while we cannot evade the operation of Karma, we can as we in- 
crease in knowledge of the law -so frame our conduct, so govern 
our thoughts and affections, as well as our speech and behavior, as 
to sow nothing but good seed, and consequently reap nothing but 
an agreeable harvest. 

Nirvana, or the state of supreme blessedness, is a condition in 
which we know no care and suffer no pain. When we have reached 
that celestial altitude, we are proof against all that could possibly 
afflict or disturb us ; we are then above the recognition of sin, sick- 
ness, and death, and in a state so exalted that for us Karma no 
longer operates. 

Theosophy does not allow that the penalty due to transgression 
can ever be evaded. To forgive sin is to deliver the mind from 
the bondage of evil desire. This can be accomplished by purely 
educational processes. 



LECTURE XVII. 387 

Spiritual Healing is acknowledged by Theosophy only so far as 
it can be scientifically demonstrated as a means of awakening the 
higher consciousness, or appealing to the nobler principle in man, 
while phenomenal Spiritualism is regarded as a legitimate subject 
for honest painstaking investigation, with a view to ascertain the 
true source whence the phenomena proceed. The true Theosophist 
lays the utmost stress on the culture of the higher self, not on the 
suppression of the lower instincts so much as on the cultivation of 
the higher; and on the basis of this conviction it is reasonably 
claimed the elevation of humanity can be successfully conducted. 

Theosophy is religion, but it is not any limited system or view 
of religion ; it is science, but it does not confine itself to any par- 
ticular department of research. It is, in a word, compendious 
anthropology; it teaches man to look within, to study his own per- 
manent selfhood, to outgrow dependence on external sources of 
information and authority, and find within himself the true, per- 
petual light. Armed with the testimony of the ages, with malice 
toward none and good will toward all, Theosophy claims as its 
mission the unification of all human interests, and the establish- 
ment of a perfectly natural and yet highly spiritual church of 
humanity unconfined by party, race, color, or belief. 

N.B. — Indebtedness is acknowledged for portions of 
this chapter to " Short Lessons in Theosophy," compiled 
by Miss S. C. Clark, a valuable little work handsomely 
bound in leatherette, price 25 cents, procurable at The 
Banner of Light bookstore, and wherever theosophical 
literature is sold. The lessons are in the form of ques- 
tions and answers, all of which are exceedingly useful 
for reference, and very acceptable to busy people. 



LECTURE XVIII. 

THEOSOPHY, SPIRITUALISM, AND CHRISTIANITY. 

The question as to what Spiritualism really is, is one 
that never seems settled, and it is very doubtful whether 
it will ever be settled in the minds of the present gen- 
eration. The word Spiritualism is so much older than 
the Rochester Knockings, so far antedates 1848, that we 
find it in the very oldest dictionaries, and whenever we 
come across words in ancient lexicons we know they 
must have had distinctive meanings long before what is 
termed Modern Spiritualism had its birth. Bishop 
Berkeley was called a Spiritualist as well as a meta- 
physician, and we know there have been Spiritualists 
and Materialists from time immemorial; the world of 
thought on religious questions is necessarily divided 
into the spiritualistic and materialistic schools. We 
must either be Spiritualists or Materialists, if we are 
anything definite; though many occupy a kind of 
middle position between Spiritualism and Materialism, 
between Theism and Atheism, and call themselves Free- 
thinkers or Agnostics. Some prefer to call themselves 
Secularists. By that term they mean that they devote 
all their time, thought, and energy to this one world 
while dwelling upon it, and that if there be a future 
state they will leave it to take care of itself. They 



LECTURE XVIII. 389 

declare one world at a time is sufficient, and if there is 
a future state, say they, we shall all know it sooner or 
later ; it is time enough for us to consider the future 
world when we are called upon to live in it. 

Xow such reasoning would be perfectly sound if our 
knowledge of the future state in no way affected our 
condition in the life that now is ; if, when we laid aside 
the garments of mortality and passed through the change 
called death, we were thoroughly remodeled ; if, by some 
subtle process, indescribable and unfathomable, we were 
transformed into another order of beings with entirely 
different feelings, desires, and occupations. If the life 
beyond were altogether remote from our present life and 
in no way affected by it, such arguments might be per- 
fectly sound, such reasoning faultless. But if we under- 
stand — as all spiritual revelation, and indeed common 
sense and sober reflection must alike teach us — that 
what we sow at one time we reap at another, that what 
we do in our present stage of existence affects our con- 
dition in the beyond, we know that we live once and 
always, we are in the spiritual world now and forever ; 
and as the life we shall live is the life we are living, as 
the life we are now living is the life we have lived, we 
learn that there is far more truth than imagination, 
far more prose and stern reality than imaginative poetry 
in the old word Karma, which only signifies sequence, 
or that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. 

The word Karma is the Sanskrit equivalent of the 
English word consequence; it means that to-day we 
prepare for tomorrow, as yesterday we prepared for 
to-day, as in youth we prepare for middle life, and in 



390 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

middle life, for old age. As our condition on the mor- 
row is the result of our action on the day previous, so 
on the day after death, on the morrow of our mortal 
existence, we must reap what we have sown and as we 
have sown. Thus the passage in Ecclesiastes is literally 
true (though often misconstrued) : " As the tree falls 
so shall it lie." Its condition is not a fixed or unalter- 
able one, but at that point where the tree falls and in the 
condition in which it fell must all those transformations 
commence which eventually will lead to the perfect 
glorification of the human spirit compared to a tree by 
an ancient writer. 

Now if Spiritualism means anything, it means we are 
alive now in the spiritual universe ; it means we are 
now spiritual entities, responsible and accountable be- 
ings, accountable according to our light, responsible ac- 
cording to our knowledge, gradually making our way 
by sure, though slow degrees, toward some future goal 
which is dimly outlined before us, but which none of us 
can plainly see except it may be in occasional moments 
of spiritual ecstasy and wonderful exaltation. Once in 
a while we find ourselves transported to Paul's third 
heaven, in some extremely lucid condition in which we 
are lifted above all sublunary things and brought face 
to face with the sublime realities of the immortal world; 
but ordinarily the future is dark and dim before us, 
illumined, indeed, with the bright rays of hope and 
expectation ; but future glories are like mountain tops 
capped with perpetual clouds that hide the summits 
from our view. Once in a while the day breaks dis- 
pelling the mists and putting the shades to flight, show- 



LECTURE XVIII. 391 

ing us those glorious peaks crowned with perpetual 
pnow and illumined with eternal glory. All the world 
looks forward to a higher, brighter, and nobler life. 
Brahmins and Buddhists, equally with Mohammedans, 
Jews and Christians, expect a brighter home hereafter. 
Not only the civilized, but the barbarian, not only the 
Caucasian, but the untutored Indian on the prairie, looks 
forward to a life beyond more beautiful than this ; and 
though western minds fail to understand the profundity 
of eastern thought, and failing to interpret the hiero- 
glyphics of ancient Hindustan declare that multitudes 
look forward to annihilation, having blindly confounded 
extinction with Nirvana; those who have penetrated 
into the inner teachings of the seers and sages of the 
Orient know full well that the Buddhistic term Nirvana 
is identical with the Christian term Kingdom of Heaven. 
Christian and Buddhist alike desire not extinction, but to 
overcome carnality, pride, selfishness, and all such sense 
of separateness from their brethren as causes one to feel 
averse to the interests of his fellows, and to erect bar- 
riers and partition walls between clans and tribes, par- 
ties, sects, and nations. The idea of the ultimate heaven 
of rest is so sublime, so exquisite in all religions, that 
a majority of people have contented themselves with 
skimming the surface of sacred literature, merely dwell- 
ing upon those parabolical explanations of spiritual 
truth which have pleased their childish fancy, as pic- 
tures and toys delight children. 

There must always be in what is popularly termed 
Spiritualism a great deal that is decidedly attractive to 
lovers of sensation : therefore Spiritualism as a distinc- 



392 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

tive philosophy has always drawn to itself a good many 
people who spend all their time in hearing or telling, 
some new thing; but while the "craze" is certainly 
abating, while the search for the wonderful is subsiding, 
while the sensational has no longer such a hold upon 
the people as it had some years ago, though Spiritualism 
is now universally regarded as one of the philosophies 
of the age, and Spiritualists are looked upon as one of 
the various branches into which the religious world is 
divided up, though such eminent men as Alfred Russel 
Wallace, and many other eminent scientists have es- 
poused the cause of Spiritualism, and put it before the 
world in a dignified shape, Spiritualism has necessarily 
within its fold much of that element which people com- 
monly call mystical — so much that all who desire to 
dream or see visions, who seek to draw aside the cur- 
tain, even though but slightly, and peer into the mys- 
teries of the unseen, are more attracted by the words 
Spiritualism and spirit-communion than by the word 
religion, or any phrases ordinarily used to signify 
ethical culture. Spiritualism by its very name draws 
to itself a large number of people who desire that the 
romantic or imaginative element in their nature shall 
be especially ministered to, consequently we find a 
great many people among Spiritualists who do not care 
much for sound and sober philosophy, but care im- 
mensely for startling phenomena. Many calling them- 
selves Spiritualists do not care to read a learned book 
or listen to a profound discourse, but if they can see a 
table move, or tambourine carried round a room by un- 
seen hands, or, best of all, witness a materialization, they 



LECTURE XVIII. 393 

are delighted. We do not blame or censure such people ; 
for they are a class who have either been emotionally 
starved or possess an over-supply of the imaginative 
element; they have either had their imagination un- 
duly repressed, until it breaks its bonds and bursts forth 
like the eruption of a volcano long delayed, or they 
have never paid any attention to the sober side of cul- 
ture, having fed upon the sweetmeats of sensationalism 
until their palates are dissatisfied with plainer and more 
wholesome food. These people who are always seeking 
for sensation do not investigate, as Professor Wallace 
did, for the sake of publishing great discoveries to the 
world ; they do not enter the seance room feeling that 
there are truths to be understood, problems to be solved, 
and facts to be discovered, by means of which the world 
can be made better and happier ; unfortunately there 
are many in the present condition of human develop- 
ment continually crying out for more and more of the 
wonderful, simply because it is wonderful. 

Then we find extremists who endeavor to correct this 
evil by taking away the wonderful altogether, who say 
all marvels are out of place ; that they do more harm 
than good. Such statements are necessarily one-sided 
and short-sighted; no philosopher, no true scientist, 
could ever fall into such an error, for we might as well 
say because some people talk too much it would he 
better not to use our vocal organs at all. Such an 
extreme position is as absurd as the equally extreme 
position of those who crave more than a normal and 
natural supply of one particular form of food. Spiritual 
manifestations in and of themselves are good and valu- 



394 STUDIES IX THEOSOPHY. 

able ; they are, indeed, absolutely necessary ; far be it 
from us to say anything that could be properly con- 
strued as derogatory to phenomena, but we do maintain 
that if Spiritualism is to be a power for good, for genuine 
usefulness in the world, while phenomena may consti- 
tute a basis for philosophy, philosophy must necessarily 
be brought home to the hearts and minds of the people, 
and be put in practice, or all the conclusions derived 
from sensuous observation of facts will be of little more 
value than the tinkling brass and sounding cymbals of 
those who have gifts and knowledge but lack charity, 
the faith which is proved by works of love. Some Spirit- 
ualists are prone to worship, others to deride phenom- 
ena ; those who take an extreme view on one side or 
the other probably feel themselves entirely dependent 
upon phenomena or else altogether independent of it. 
It is positively amusing to read some spiritualistic 
literature, and listen to the utterance of certain Spirit- 
ualists. We hear one party say, " There is no foundation 
for our philosophy except physical phenomena " ; then 
we hear other persons exclaim, " We want the philoso- 
phy and do not care about phenomena at all ; indeed, 
we believe they do more harm than good." Now how 
can these diametrically opposite statements be recon- 
ciled? Are they reconcilable? We maintain they are. 
Certain people can only drink in knowledge as it is 
presented to their senses ; every grain of truth has to be 
filtered through the sensuous perceptions before it can 
reach their intellect; before they can realize anything 
of spiritual truth, they must taste, touch, smell, see, or 
hear. It appears that some of the apostles of Jesus 



LECTURE XVIII. 395 

(Thomas especially) were of this class. Thomas was 
a natural skeptic, by no means a sensual man, but, 
nevertheless, one who demanded sensuous proof of 
immortality. He said, therefore, " Unless I touch and 
see I will not believe." We often hear it said that 
belief rests upon evidence. How t many people exclaim : 
" I would believe if I could ; how I wish I could ; 
the philosophy of Spiritualism is so beautiful ; if it is 
not true, it should be true ; it is so consoling ; oh, if I 
only could believe it, but I cannot." We hear such 
words uttered again and again by thoroughly honest 
seekers after truth; but some are so constituted they 
cannot receive light from preaching or reading, but let 
them witness almost any phenomena of a physical char- 
acter, the genuineness of which they cannot question, 
and they will go home rejoicing, declaring they have 
found a key which has unlocked the very door of heaven ; 
they have discovered the rule by means of which they 
can solve the most important problem that has ever 
presented itself for solution to human understanding. 
Now what is more likely than that such people should 
eulogize phenomena through the length and breadth 
of the land, rush into print, and wherever they can, 
enter into conversation, to proclaim phenomena every- 
thing ; without phenomenal proof they would have 
remained in darkness ; through it the tears are wiped 
from their eyes, their doubts are removed, their fears 
dispelled, they are joyously happy; they straightway 
conclude all their brethren are like themselves ; they 
think everybody requires exactly the kind of evidence 
they required and while they honestly believe phenom- 



396 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

ena to be the universal panacea for every doubt and 
ailment, certain others as honest as themselves fly to 
similar phenomena and receive no satisfaction. 

Another class of people are so constituted that they 
must receive everything intellectually. No matter how 
much phenomena they witness, they cannot accept spir- 
itual truth on the testimony of their senses alone; 
they must have everything made plain to the intellect. 
These will incessantly read, question, listen, and think, 
and it is only through mental deliberations, and delving 
deeply into the mines of literature that they can pos- 
sibly receive satisfaction ; then when they are satisfied 
through study, through intellectual research, they pro- 
claim that if you will only circulate literature, deliver 
lectures, enter into debates, converse fluently with your 
friends, place before them cogent reasons and sound 
arguments, you will have the world at the feet of spirit- 
ual philosophy. 

There are others again who receive truth intuitively ; 
they are not reasoners to any great extent, neither are 
they great readers ; they are neither very studious nor 
the best of listeners, but keenly alive to everything that 
touches the moral sense. They are always striving to 
enter into silent communion with the world of souls ; 
they seek in solitary places a spiritual influx which 
reaches them independently of all outward ministra- 
tions, such as the sound of the human voice, the printed 
page, or any external sign or symbol ; they realize the 
nearness of the spiritual world only as it secretly touches 
their inmost nature. These tell you that if you would 
receive the highest spiritual revelation you must retire 



LECTURE XVIII. 397 

from the haunts of men, throw yourself into seclusion, 
and live a solitary, almost monastic life. The monastery 
and convent have charms for them, and if Roman Cathol- 
icism does not attract them, Buddhism will. They read- 
ily imagine in some sacred retreat in the mountains of 
India, saintly Mahatmas who have solved the most diffi- 
cult problems of the universe through living lives of 
abstemiousness and seclusion, and consider that all spir- 
itual gifts are to be cultivated only by means of prayer 
and fasting, by reining in the lower nature, and thus 
allowing the higher self to have full sway ; only thus, 
say they, can we really arrive at knowledge of truth. 

These latter are often the most interior and spiritual 
of all, but unfortunately in all pronounced types of 
mind there is a development of one side only of human 
nature rather than symmetrical unf oldment of the entire 
being. Wherever certain exclusive forms of good are 
over-highly prized, and the harmonious culture of the 
entire individual not regarded as essential, persons are 
sure to be more or less erratic, consequently the gospel 
they preach is good news for some people, but not for 
all. We are told that when Jesus was born, the angels 
shouted, " Peace on earth ; good will to men " ; and 
declared that glad tidings were to be heralded abroad 
which should be for all people ; then when the Holy 
Spirit came, on that wondrous feast of Pentecost fol- 
lowing the final departure of Jesus from the external 
form, we are told that illiterate fishermen and other 
disciples gathered there, who knew only one language, 
were inspired to speak of the wonderful works of God 
in so many different tongues, that the vast concourse 



398 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

of nationalities gathered in Jerusalem's fair temple, 
could all hear the truth in the language to which they 
were born. Paul, drinking in the spirit of the earliest 
followers of Jesus, speaks of a diversity of gifts, but 
one spirit ; many forms of administration, yet one Lord 
over all, one God, one Spirit in all and through all. 

If our platform is to be truly universal, spiritual, and 
humanitarian, we must never restrict ourselves to the 
advocacy of that which will meet the requirements of 
just one class of people; we must never desire that 
only in one tongue the truth shall be spoken ; we must 
never seek to narrow divine revelation to one particular 
form of presentation ; but, having in view the general 
good to all, whether we individually require phenomena 
or not, we should remember there are many who do, 
consequently we should do all in our power to promote 
it in its genuineness in all its phases, and honor all who 
are the instruments of presenting it to the world. No 
matter whether we require argument or not, there are 
some who can only be convinced by an appeal to the 
intellect, therefore we should do all in our power to 
sustain the platform and the press. If we can receive 
truth without retiring into solitude, we must bear in 
mind that there are many who cannot hear the voices 
of heaven when the harsh noises of earth are ringing in 
their ears, so we should gladly prepare for such a quiet 
retreat. Some of us may resemble tall forest trees, or 
conspicuous flowers, appearing in the world in its most 
noted places, while others may be like lilies of the valley 
or modest violets hiding in the shade, making sweet the 
copse and sheltered dell, doing their work in silence 



LECTURE XVIII. 399 

and in secrecy, just as effectually as others of us may 
do ours in the public marts of the world. 

True Spiritualism, like Theosophy, is inclusive, never 
exclusive. The Spiritualism that is for Spiritualists 
only is a Spiritualism we want nothing to do with. We 
shall never take any part in its advocacy, as we cannot 
conscientiously sustain it. A Spiritualism that is for 
all humanity is the only Spiritualism we recognize 
as genuine. That Spiritualism which is not for the 
world, not alike for Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, and 
barbarian; which does not speak to the Eastern and 
Western Hemispheres alike ; which cannot recognize 
the virtues of Plato, Socrates, of the Buddhas, Zoroaster, 
and Jesus, as well as those of modern workers, is a 
narrow, exclusive, limited thing, fostering contention 
and strife, and can never be anything more than a 
sickly exotic, a poor little pampered plant, reared in 
a hothouse, its leaves destined soon to wither and fall, 
while its fruit will never come to perfection. Efforts, 
tending to wrap Spiritualism up within the folds of 
sectarian organization, may be the means of adding one 
more to the countless sects into which the world is now 
divided, but will never add anything to the great living, 
progressive, liberal thought of the age. Spiritualism is 
a universal movement, or it is nothing ; it does not be- 
long to any clan, party or sect ; there is for the true 
Spiritualist no Jerusalem, no Mecca upon earth, and no 
special teacher or leader at its head. True Spiritualism 
is like leaven hid in all measures of meal of which 
men partake — it must penetrate the entire mass until 
the whole is leavened. 



400 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Now, let us inquire, What is the relation of Spiritual- 
ism, pure and simple, to Christianity ? We take par- 
ticular notice of Christianity because it is the prevailing 
religion of America and Europe. If we were working 
in Hindustan, we should particularly consider the rela- 
tion of Spiritualism to the Buddhistic and Brahmanical 
faiths ; if we were speaking in the Ottoman Empire, we 
should particularly consider its relation to the Mo- 
hammedan religion ; but as we are working in countries 
in which the majority of the people profess the Christian 
name, and where the so-called Christian religion is the 
religion of the masses, it specially behooves us to con- 
sider the relation of Spiritualism to Christianity. 

Should Spiritualists antagonize Christianity? That de- 
pends entirely upon what is meant by Christianity. If 
you mean a hierarchical system, a theological imperialism, 
an ecclesiasticism which has in the past given birth to 
the Inquisition, and would re-establish it to-day if it had 
the power, hostility to such unchristian Christianity is 
but natural and right; but Unitarians and Universalists 
bear the Christian name, and nearly all liberal minds in 
the churches delight in it. Christian Scientists say that 
Christ is only another name for truth ; and surely Paul 
when writing to the Corinthians entertained the broadest 
possible idea of the Christ when he said that all honest 
spiritual workers were members of one body, and that 
the great body of humanity enlightened by the spirit of 
truth, constituted the Christ. It is a mere technical 
quibble with many people who are continually antag- 
onizing Christianity ; they are evidently determined to 
fight something and some one, and therefore often set 



LECTURE XVtli. 401 

up a man of straw which they call Christianity, and then 
proceed to knock it down. 

Many people are very fond of heaping ridicule upon 
everything which bears the Christian name. With all 
such onslaught and attack we have no sympathy what- 
ever. When people resort to sarcasm and abuse it is 
usually because they are devoid of understanding, and 
for lack of argument throw dirt when unable to logically 
defend their position. Many sciolists, when they cannot 
argue a question out, throw dust in the eyes of their 
hearers, and in raising dust think they can cover their 
ignominious retreat; but no really intelligent person 
has ever taken any such course. We are living in an 
age when every one must be allowed the free expression 
of his sincere and honest convictions without being sub- 
jected to abuse for so doing, and any person who calls 
another a fool because he does not agree with him must 
be strangely destitute of intelligence himself, or else 
desirous to be a god before whom the world is to bow 
down and worship. We are, happily, outgrowing the 
era of personal and localized divinities ; we no longer 
recognize the authority of self-styled apostles. The time 
now is when the priestly office is being abandoned, and 
we are approaching a happier era when every honest 
man will be both priest and king. As in the future 
there will be no special laboring class because there will 
be no idlers, so the time is coming when all will be 
kings and queens, priests and priestesses, prophets and 
prophetesses, seers and seeresses, for the happy day ap- 
proaches when the prediction of olden prophets will be 
fulfilled and the spirit of truth be poured out upon all 



402 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

mankind, to the end that young and old, male and 
female, shall alike prophesy, and be enlightened. 

We are approaching the glorious time when all the 
limits of sectarianism must necessarily be removed, and 
when, as a result, the old stereotyped forms of Chris- 
tianity must go the way of all transitory things. They 
were well enough in the days of old when the multitude 
could neither read nor write, when scribes and readers 
were idolized, because the scribes and priests were the 
only educated men in the community ; well enough in 
those old times when most men were little better than 
slaves and barbarians, whose leaders were obliged to hold 
them in check with the tightest possible rein to prevent 
lawlessness and insurrection ; but their day is past. 

All th$ good there is in Christendom, all the noble 
examples of heroism shown by Christian martyrs, would 
live forever, though the words, Christ, Christian, and 
Christianity should eventually be dropped out of the 
world's lexicons. Many have no longer any need for 
distinctive appellations, but if any have outgrown the 
Christian name, it is not because Christianity was a 
system of imposition, but only that something better, 
higher, and newer is always in store for humanity. 

We are frequently informed that many who were 
formerly outspoken Spiritualists have gone back into 
Christian churches, and that many have gone into them 
for the first time because they find there a more lucra- 
tive field of labor. You will find in almost every in- 
stance that those who have acted thus had respectability 
and organization on the brain ; and, as the churches are 
perfectly organized and very respectable, they found 



LECTUKE XVIII. 403 

that organization and respectability could be secured in 
churches better than in any independent movement. 
We do not blame them ; if they belong in churches let 
them go there ; finding their true level they can best do 
their work. There is a great deal to be done in and by 
churches ; a great deal of good can be done in them ; 
and instead of harshly criticising those who enter them, 
we say if they feel better satisfied therein the church is 
the place for them ; then, if they find it uncomfortable, 
they can get out again. This is a question that must 
be left to the conscientious decision of the individual ; 
no one has any right to place restrictions upon his 
brother's or sister's convictions and opinions, or to im- 
pute improper motives to another. 

If there are any, and common report says there are 
many, who go into the churches because they think 
they can do better in a financial sense, then we are sorry 
for the churches they have entered ; for persons whose 
motives are only selfish are a detriment to the society 
they enter, while no one can come into the atmosphere 
of sincere, disinterested workers for humanity without 
being uplifted in some degree ; your nobler feelings will 
be touched, your loftiest emotions stirred through com- 
munion with their thought. 

All we say is, be true to your inward light, go where 
conscience leads you, and all the hosts of heaven will 
bless you in your undertaking. Bad results and use- 
lessness must always proceed from hypocrisy and false 
swearing. Let us then attach more and more impor- 
tance to the cardinal virtues ; let us look more to the 
foundations, the essentials of morality ; let us strive for 



404 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

spirituality rather than for professed Spiritualism which 
many use as a convenient term to cover anything. 

No honest seeker after truth shall ever hear from us 
a slighting or insulting word because of his or her 
church associations. What right have we, what right 
has any one, to point to any institution and declare it 
superior to all others, unless it can prove its superiorit}' 
by the practical good it does in the world ? Everything 
must be tried by the fruit it bears. If any desire to 
build up Spiritualism they must not find fault the one 
with the other, or indulge in petty disputes and antago- 
nisms. Spiritualists unfortunately have been their own 
worst enemies; they have mercilessly attacked each 
other instead of attacking evil. If they would attack 
vice and error, if they would preach a glorious, intelli- 
gible and affirmative philosophy, and surround mediums 
with the best conditions for eliciting satisfactory phe- 
nomena, Spiritualism would go forward conquering and 
to conquer, which it can never do if misrepresented by 
assumed exponents who perpetually indulge in sarcasm, 
abuse, and ruthless iconoclasm. 

Spiritualism is a system of philosophy with accom- 
panying signs and wonders, and as Jesus said concerning 
his followers, " These signs shall follow those who be- 
lieve," so that when they went out into the world men 
might know they were really his disciples, as they healed 
the sick and cast out devils, which meant that they 
helped people to overcome their vices; so to-day, if 
Spiritualists are to be lights of the world and salt of 
the earth, they can only become so by reviving in our 
midst those wonderful gifts of the spirit (teaching and 



LECTURE XVIII. 405 

healing) which in the olden days brought such honor 
to the Christian name, and shed so glorious a luster 
over all the earth wherever the pioneers of Christianity 
traveled. 

Spiritualism, if true to itself, must be brighter and 
more liberal than all systems beside. The very word 
Spiritualism embodies the idea of universality. Our 
theosophical brethren in India are doing better work 
than any other missionaries because instead of attacking 
Oriental religions they are seeking to interpret the spirit 
of the Sanskrit Scriptures to the Hindu youth, reveal- 
ing to them the buried treasures in the mines of their 
own literature. A Hindu teacher, Mohini M. Chatterji, 
whose English translation of the Bhagavad GitS, with 
notes and references to the New Testament should be 
studied by all students of Theosophy, when in Boston 
preached in some of the leading Unitarian churches; 
among others he occupied the pulpit usually occupied 
by the far-famed Edward Everett Hale, where he de- 
clared he saw no difference between esoteric Buddhism 
and esoteric Christianity; for after he studied the New 
Testament he found it identical in its spirit with the 
Hindu Vedas. He said he did not desire either to 
Christianize Buddhists or to make Buddhists of Chris- 
tians. Such is the prevailing sentiment of spiritually 
minded scholars everywhere. 

The need of to-day is universal Spiritualism or uni- 
versal Theosophy ; we need to cull flowers from every 
garden, to take the wise maxims and noble thoughts of 
ancient and modern poets, seers, and sages, and so bind 
them together as to forward the highest purposes of life. 



406 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

It is altogether too late for one party to denounce all 
others ; it is altogether out of date to throw aside the 
world's Bibles, and say there are no kernels in their 
shells because people have been long fed on husks and 
have not yet discovered the kernels. 

We have the greatest respect for every honorable man 
and woman; we admire honesty wherever we find it. 
All persons who are really noble and sincere live to do 
good ; and, whether on the platform, in the pulpit, or 
through the press, or by means of work in silent and 
secret places, their influence goes forth as the sweet 
perfumes of the choicest flowers ; wherever the blossoms 
are they exhale their fragrance. So every good man 
and woman, no matter where or who he or she may be, 
is certain to lift the morals of society to a higher stand- 
ard. Our work is not to throw the Bibles of the world 
overboard, nor to denounce the religion of those about 
us, but to help all, so far as we are able, to see the treas- 
ures in their own Scriptures, and understand the great 
esoteric verities which are shrouded in their systems of 
theology. Let us, therefore, endeavor to trace all relig- 
ious faiths and customs to their primal source, gladly 
accepting all that is good and true, while throwing away 
the refuse ; with unsparing hands break idols wherever 
they stand in the way of true progress, but ever with 
the intent of clearing ground for the erection of larger 
and nobler ideals for humanity. 

The parenthood of Deity, the universal brotherhood 
and sisterhood of humanity, are the two essential planks 
of the broad platform on which all can safely stand. 
With love to all and malice toward none, let us build 



LECTURE XVIII. 407 

our temples with sky-lights in the roof, so that the light 
of heaven may shine in fresh every day ; let us go out 
every morning to pick up the manna which has freshly 
fallen ; let us drink from the water of the everflowing 
spring ; let us not desire the ancient or the modern be- 
cause it is either old or new, nor seek after that which 
goes under one name or another because of its distinct- 
ive appellation, but for truth alone in the spirit of love. 
Those who ask will find; those who seek will surely 
win the treasure, and to all who knock upon the door 
of the temple of divine wisdom an answer will come, 
an adapted ministration suited to the needs of every 
suppliant. 



LECTURE XIX. 

WHY ARE THERE CONTRADICTORY TEACHINGS THROUGH 
MEDIUMS ? — WHAT IS THE TRUE STANDARD OF 
AUTHORITY ? 

(Delivered in Metropolitan Temple, San Francisco, March 31, 1889. Published by 
particular request.) 

We have often been particularly requested to say 
something on the practical value of communications 
which are said to be received from the spirit-world. 

Now it seems to us imperatively necessary that we 
should take a fair and common-sense position with regard 
to ancient and modern inspiration and spiritual revela- 
tion, so that we may not be led either to blindly indorse 
whatsoever purports to be of spiritual origin, or to de- 
nounce anything without positive knowledge that it 
is false; we certainly are not justified in proclaiming 
as evil that which does not at first commend itself to 
the outer degrees of our understanding, nor are we 
justified in accepting as truth whatever tickles our 
fancy or supports our preconceptions. 

We have always maintained that a spiritual revela- 
tion does not undertake to reveal to mankind anything 
he can learn as readily from mundane sources ; com- 
munion with the spirit-world is not properly a substi- 
tute for normal education ; we must not infer that our 



LECTURE XIX. 409 

true attitude to the spirit-world is an attitude of abject 
dependence or of servile adoration. 

On the other hand, an intelligent view of the endless 
continuity of individual life, an intelligent view of the 
position which is now being taken by the most enlight- 
ened minds everywhere, viz. : that there is no death, 
and that when the material form drops away we go on 
living as we lived before in mind and morals, though 
ever progressing nearer and nearer to a divine goal of 
surpassing excellence which beggars all description and 
is beyond the furthest flight of our imagination — leads 
us to readily admit that in harmony with divine jus- 
tice there can be no perfect heaven for one portion of 
humanity awaiting them the moment they cast aside 
their material bodies, and no dark and dreadful hell 
awaiting others immediately they shuffle off this mortal 
coil; our own reason, our own right feeling, our own 
intelligent sense of justice tell us that the spiritual 
world can neither be divided into one, two, nor four 
departments, and that there is an infinite meaning in 
the oft-quoted passage of the New Testament : " In my 
Father's house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a 
place for you; if it were not so I would have told 
you ; " and also in the words of another writer in the 
New Testament, who, when speaking concerning Judas 
Iscariot, who betrayed his Master, pronounced no con- 
demnation upon him, but merely said : " He went to 
his own place." " He went to his own place " meant 
that he went to that particular place whither he was 
attracted ; and without undertaking to say how good or 
how bad he was, how wise or how foolish, how insincere 



410 STUDIES IN THEOSQPHY. 

or how mistaken, the writer allows the imagination and 
the conscience to fill in all the blanks, and contents 
himself with saying : " He went to his own place." 
Those words are true universally of all who depart 
from the body. 

When we remember that in this world if each one 
were to go to his own place this moment — if all the 
barriers of distance, land and water, were removed, and 
we could all go just where we pleased, associating with 
whomsoever we would, and engaging in any pastime or 
occupation which pleased us most — even in an audience 
of a few hundreds, like the assembly gathered here this 
morning, there might be a few hundred different places 
selected; and when the millions upon millions of the 
earth's population are taken into consideration, and we 
see before our mental vision each going to his own 
place from all quarters of the globe, how readily we 
must perceive that the natural result of this must be 
that the North American Indian will still pursue the 
chase, even though it be but in imagination and sub- 
jectively in his own mind, until he has outgrown the 
desire to hunt buffalo on the prairie. How naturally we 
can conclude that the Mussulman, aiming at an exten- 
sion of the term of physical enjoyment, goes to a state 
and condition where so-called angels of paradise take the 
place (ever in a subjective sense) of earthly women; 
and how readily we can imagine the contemplative 
Brahmin and the self-denying Buddhist passing gladly 
away from all material haunts, pains, and pleasures, 
resting in those calm worlds which lead up at length 
to the absolute glories of Nirvana, a condition of abso- 



LECTURE XIX. 411 

lute spiritual blessedness and entire immunity from all 
physical thought and desire. How readily we can fancy 
the Greek, with his wonderful love of beauty and sym- 
metry, going into a world where painters, sculptors, and 
poets have gone, and inspiring those of future genera- 
tions upon earth to become yet diviner in the execution 
of their artistic faculties than were the most renowned 
among artists of old ; and how readily we can fancy 
the politician, the clergyman, the lawyer, the doctor, all 
going out into a realm of spirit and finding there in the 
kingdom of mind certain difficulties to adjust, mental 
ills to cure, mistakes to correct, and moral lessons to 
learn — and then inspiring mankind as best they can 
with the wiser laws, deeper truths, and more spiritual 
facts which they have discovered. How readily we can 
fancy the soldier, with his war-like impulse, beginning 
perhaps with those who were engaged in warfare about 
him, still entertaining the thought that physical strife 
on earth is yet needful, but at length outgrowing all 
thought of an outward encounter, and bending all his 
war-like impulses to fighting with abstract evils and 
demolishing the very foundations of the citadel of error. 
How readily we can feel that the men and women of 
the world — the mere frivolous butterflies of fashion, 
who seek hither and thither amusement to while away 
the idle hour, who are by no means vicious, and j^et live 
a life which is better befitting an insect than a rational 
creature — find for the time being no other enjoyment, 
no other pursuit or desire in their mind than to roam 
through the fields of space and play with this and the 
other joy or beauty which they encounter in their sur- 



412 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

roundings. We cannot feel that death, which is simply 
laying the material form aside, can all in a moment trans- 
form the character or alter the bent of mental pursuit. 

While there may be, and doubtless is, a world of 
light and loveliness where all are engaged in the wor- 
ship of God and the service of humanity, in the very 
highest meaning which we can attach to those phrases ; 
while after ages of progression every human spirit 
reaches a point where all earthliness is refined away, all 
mistakes are corrected, and the affections exclusively 
set upon the highest good — until that glorious consum- 
mation arrives, all are growing, constantly advancing, 
and those who are yet in mortal form and those who 
have cast it aside are members of one family and one 
household; they are soldiers in one army, citizens of 
the same great republic. 

Feeling, therefore, that death is not what so many 
people suppose it to be : the sudden termination of all 
so-called earthly activity, — regarding death in no sense 
in the light of an abrupt ending either to mental pur- 
suit or to the desires of the heart, we do not expect 
in the realm of spirit to come in contact only with in- 
fallible oracles, who can inspire the world to the loftiest 
deeds of heroism or to the accomplishment of the great- 
est and noblest designs ; on the contrary, we expect to 
have this lesson taught us by constant spiritual com- 
munion that " As the tree falls so shall it lie " ; that 
" where the tree falls there shall it lie " ; whether it 
fall to the north or to the south, to the east or to the 
west; whether it fall in the young beauty of the sap- 
ling or in the full-blown splendor of the perfected tree ; 



LECTUKE XIX. 413 

whether it fall in a condition of perfect health and vigor, 
or in any way maimed and imperfect ; as it falls so does 
it lie, for there and in that condition does it begin those 
transformations, which, going on perhaps forever and 
forever, can only start from that point where the mind 
was found at the moment when what is termed death 
released the spirit and terminated its career on earth. 

Many orthodox Christians have so long been accus- 
tomed to misinterpret the similes of Scripture, that in- 
stead of conforming their interpretation to Nature and 
allowing the images to speak for themselves, they argue 
an impossible deduction from a very simple illustration. 
No one has ever seen a tree remain unchanged year 
after year and century after century; no one has ever 
seen a fallen tree lying by the banks of a river, or out in 
a forest, subject to no change or decay; but, on the 
other hand, after a while the tree is completely changed 
in its form ; all there was of it has been absorbed into 
the earth or has evaporated into the air ; and while the 
tree began to change in that place, and its transforma- 
tions started from that condition wherein it fell, there 
never was a tree that remained in the condition and in 
the place where it fell even for a century, to say nothing 
of forever. The very similes which have been contin- 
ually employed as arguing against progression in the 
life beyond, and an infinite diversity in the states and 
conditions of spirit-life, in reality were intended to sig- 
nify the very opposite of what commentators and inter- 
preters have argued from them. 

In every age of the world the great simple and natural 
truth has been revealed to man, that the human spirit in 



414 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the body and the human spirit out of the body are not 
only near neighbors, but are identical in their amena- 
bility to the immutable laws of growth and expansion. 
We find that every desire or endeavor to make a dis- 
tinction where none naturally exists, to create a differ- 
ence where there is none in reality, between the friend 
on earth and the spirit friend, leads to specious forms of 
idolatry, sends people forward on ridiculous errands, and 
lifts them up with the false belief that they are specially 
great and wonderful instruments of heaven, as other 
people are not, and often makes them believe that the 
highest spirits named in some illustrious literature are 
forever by their side ; whereas, spiritual communion in 
and of itself, divested of all unnatural accretions, means 
no more than this : that we continue to remain in the 
family in which we now are ; and though we are certain 
there are many people who are thoroughly sincere, per- 
fectly conscientious in their beliefs, — and we would not 
say one unkind or harsh word concerning them, or en- 
deavor to take from them any consolation which they 
receive from their peculiar belief in a certain kind of 
spiritual communion, — yet we would urge all investi- 
gators not to be so much carried away, as they usually 
are, by grandiloquent utterances, or by great promises 
and high-sounding names. 

It is true that all have a great and holy work to do, all 
have a mission in life. It is true that no one came into 
the world by accident; every one has a vocation, and 
should endeavor to make his calling and election sure ; 
but while it is a great truth that not one of you goes 
through the world alone, unattended by angel legions, a 



LECTUKE XIX. 415 

great cloud of witnesses surround you all, and you all have 
a niche to fill in the great temple of the universe ; while 
it is perfectly true in the larger sense that you all have 
some great and holy mission to fulfill, it is not true in 
the smaller sense that Miss Smith has an important mis- 
sion in life while Miss Brown has not, one's mission being 
in no sense so very much greater and more important 
than another's, even though Mr. Jones may be called by 
the angel world to do a work for humanity that Mr. White 
can never accomplish. It is simply universally true that 
every individual has his own work to do and his own 
inspiration to follow ; but that tendency of the human 
mind to rejoice in being flattered, that tendency in human 
fancy to set one's self upon a pedestal, feeling one is 
called to do something greater and more beautiful than 
any other person, is a very unhappy and a very unfortu- 
nate state in which many persons are found. 

What we urge upon all inquirers into Spiritualism, 
upon all persons who sit for spirit communication or who 
have mediumistic power, is that they value a communica- 
tion for its intrinsic worth, and not be forever asking 
who it is that is communicating and what is the name 
of the spirit. If you are dealing with personal matters, 
if you desire to receive a communication from your 
mother or your child, then the giving of a name is often 
a necessary test of identity. If you go to a circle and 
are told that some dear friend of yours has a message for 
you, and the medium is a perfect stranger — no matter 
whether the word is spoken or written, whether it comes 
between closed slates or on a ballot, or is uttered through 
the lips — a name is sometimes a great test of spiritual 



416 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

presence, one which is very satisfactory and helpful to 
you, as it constitutes a link which binds you in a pecu- 
liarly near and affectionate manner to the spiritual world. 
We do not say you should not rejoice in getting the 
names of your friends given to you through strangers 
when you are studying psychological laws and endeavor- 
ing to obtain intelligent spirit communication ; but what 
we do say is this : You did not enjoy personal acquain- 
tance on earth with Jesus Christ and the Apostles ; you 
were not personally acquainted with Solomon, Moses, 
Elijah, Confucius, nor with any of those wonderful peo- 
ple who are mentioned so much in spiritual communica- 
tions, consequently the fact of such names as those being 
given is no test of spirit identity ; it does not proclaim 
in any special way that the friendships of earth are con- 
tinued in the life beyond, and there is no added proof of 
genuineness attached to a communication because it 
bears any such signature. Consequently we are always 
pleased when ideas are put forward first ; let the ques- 
tion of whom they come from be inquired into later on, 
if at all. 

We will make no concession whatever to theological 
or any other kind of bigotry, to those who would be 
ashamed to own a truth because they thought it was 
unpopular, nor would we wish to give countenance to 
any unworthy spirit of suspicion ; but there are a large 
number of people who are so constituted that if you can 
give them the spiritual kernel without so much chaff, if 
you can give them the genuine spiritual communication 
without wrapping it in so many envelopes, if you can 
divest it of all unnecessary outward accretions — which 



LECTURE XIX. 417 

disguise rather than reveal truth — though you may think 
you have given less and the communication is less won- 
derful, it is far more convincing. We can tell you our 
own experience, and nothing else, has led us to decidedly 
assume the attitude that it is most undesirable to try 
and receive evidences of the presence of great person- 
ages, and to seek for very, very wonderful works ; judg- 
ing by the nature of the communications themselves, we 
have found again and again that those which are practi- 
cally anonymous are by far the most inspiring in a major- 
ity of instances. 

We knew a very beautiful lady in New York who was 
a private medium ; the most exquisite poetry was written 
through her hand — splendid poems, day after day, were 
written upon a great variety of subjects. Her friends 
said to her : " Who is your control ? It must be some 
very great poet," The lady answered in a most artless 
and simple manner : " A few years ago I had a young 
lady boarding with me to whom I was very much at- 
tached ; she was very fond of poetry ; she passed away 
very suddenly, and she has regularly inspired me ever 
since ; that young lady, who was once an inmate of my 
family, writes these poems through me." Those poem^ 
were so beautiful, so exquisite in their composition and 
so refined in their sentiment, that if the name of Byron 
had been given people would have said: " Byron has 
improved greatly since he passed into the spirit-world." 

In a very, very large number of instances, if a few 
lines of verse are given it is said to come from some one 
who had such a reputation on earth as a poet that the 
claim deters the public from believing there was any 



418 STUDIES IX THEOSOPHY. 

inspiration in it, because those lines are not nearly up to 
the earthly standard. 

Now, of course there is a way out of all these diffi- 
culties : it may be said that when these great minds 
were on earth they had their own organisms to work 
through, and their own organisms were far better 
adapted to the work in hand than the organisms which 
they are now endeavoring to manipulate ; that it took 
them a long time to use their own brains perfectly, and 
now that they are endeavoring to work through others 
they find themselves at a great disadvantage. Of course, 
this is reasonable enough, and may often be the case ; 
but another great point that ought to be raised in all 
such instances is, that these very individuals who have 
been singled out as so great and wonderful upon the 
earth were not, in reality, so much greater than others 
as they are supposed to have been ; and what is more, 
they were not really the sole authors of the works which 
have borne their names. Homer's "Iliad" is one of the 
most magnificent poetical compositions on earth, but no 
scholar to-day believes that a single Greek poet by the 
name of Homer wrote the entire " Iliad." The " Iliad " was 
the production of a period, and instead of giving credit 
to one man as its sole author, we cannot doubt that it 
should be regarded as a result of the poetic inspirations 
of the period. Now, it does not detract from the beauty 
of the " Iliad" as a classical poem to take this view of it ; 
it remains as great as it ever was, for it has an intrinsic 
value all its own. To-day there are serious questions as 
to whether the plays of Shakespeare were all written by 
him, it being conceded in many quarters that Lord 



LECTURE XIX. 419 

Bacon and others may have had a great deal to do with 
the Shakespearian productions ; but the plays themselves 
are just as great — and always will be — as though a 
man named William Shakespeare wrote every word of 
them ; you will not enjoy them any the less the next 
time you hear and see them acted upon the stage. It is 
not a question of where they came from or when they 
were written, but solely of what they are intrinsically 
worth, which determines their value. 

So with the entire Bible and with all sacred literature. 
You cannot in the present state of controversy declare 
that Moses wrote all the Pentateuch ; indeed, there are 
valid reasons for assuming that he did not write more 
than a small portion, if he wrote any of it. The books 
containing the Mosaic law are certainly not five books 
written by the hand of Moses ; and while it is utterly 
impossible to decide what words in the Gospels were 
uttered by Jesus of Nazareth, while even a cloud of doubt 
rests over the personality of Christ altogether, and there 
are now many scholars who are not prepared to affirm 
positively whether Jesus ever lived or not, every word 
in the Mosaic law, every precept in the Gospels contains 
just as much truth, is just as valuable and edifying as if 
we knew exactly where it came from and who wrote it 
— as valuable as though we had been on the spot and 
were witnesses to every utterance and writing. What 
does it matter to us whether the ten commandments 
were given thirty-one hundred years ago from the top 
of Mount Sinai, or whether they were known to the 
ancient Atlantians and to the pre-historic races which 
inhabited Central America before some great cataclysm 



420 STUDIES IX THEOSOPHY. 

had changed the positions of land and water upon the 
globe ? What does it matter whether the reputed say- 
ings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount were uttered 
two thousand years ago, or whether they were uttered 
in ancient temples of the antediluvian world whose 
ruins have long rested under the bed of the ocean ? The 
commandments are no less binding, and the Gospels no 
less inspired. Moral truth is no less sublime because 
its history is lost sight of ; it can be of no greater value 
because we know the day and the hour when it was first 
delivered to the world, the personality through whom 
utterance was given to it, and the circumstances which 
attended its proclamation! If we can rise from the 
lower to the higher level of thought, and, instead of 
bowing down to its antecedents, judge of the jewel by 
its own worth, we shall not be deceived any longer by 
imitations. But unfortunately, in the minds of a great 
many people the inquiry is not what is said, but who 
said it. And does not this apply to agnostics as well as 
to Christians ? A Christian will accept anything on the 
alleged authority of Jesus or if it is in the Bible, but 
many and many an agnostic will accept any statement 
on the say-so of Tyndall, Huxley, Darwin, or Spencer. 
If we set up these modern idols in the scientific world 
and bow down to them as authorities, we are just as 
guilty of superstition and idolatry as though we bowed 
to the dictum of the old prophets. If we make of a 
modern scientist a lord and ruler, and allow him to de- 
cide everything for us, and then foolishly speak about 
what Science says, when all we mean is what a certain 
individual says, we shall fall into just as many difficui- 



LECTURE XIX. 421 

ties and be just as superstitious as ever were the ancients 
whose superstitions we affect to despise. Unfortunately 
there are very few original thinkers in the world ; un- 
fortunately, also, there are very few independent minds, 
very few people who will appeal directly to God or 
directly to Nature, who will interrogate the universe and 
stand up in the royalty of their own manhood and woman- 
hood and acknowledge that God and truth are as near to 
them as to any so-called authority. 

As long as we allow the adoration of persons and the 
adoration of books, the works of modern scientists and 
philosophers, we create fetiches as much as ever the 
Bibles of antiquity have become objects of fetich adora- 
tion; just as surely do we set up new idols and bow 
down to new graven images, when we quote authorities 
forever as much as though we were to confine ourselves 
to beliefs of the most unwarrantable character that have 
come to us from the past. Why not be free, why not 
enter so fully into the liberty of the spirit that we can 
hear everything and read everything, and then allow 
our own moral sense and highest judgment to discrimi- 
nate between the chaff and the wheat, between the 
precious and the vile ? Why not go fearlessly into the 
presence of the mightiest intellect and the meanest? 
Why not read books hoary with age and those yet 
moist from the printing-press with equal respect ? Why 
not listen to the words of those universally admired and 
also of those who in solitary hiding-places, living apart 
from men, are called recluses or even " cranks," and 
pay equal deference to all ; acknowledge your bootblack 
and your laundryman as being possibly as near to God 



422 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

as any ancient prophet or modern scribe ? And when 
you allow every word that is spoken, every message 
that is given, every page that is written, be it ancient 
or modern, be it couched in elegant phraseology or 
draped in the humblest form of words, to appeal to your 
own conscience and reason, and assume a reasonable 
attitude with regard to all, you will then lay upon the 
shelf and remain non-committal toward that which does 
not convince your spirit as yet, and gladly accept what 
feeds you of the bread of truth, no matter where it may 
have been made, or by whom outwardly presented. 
When in this attitude we rise forever superior to a 
blind idolatry of persons, and not only do we protest 
against past superstition, but we protest with equal 
vigor against that foolish idolatry in the agnostic world 
which sets up a few modern authorities and calls upon 
the world to bow down and worship them as foolishly 
as ever the ancients worshiped the golden calf or a 
golden image set up by an impious king. If we con- 
tinue to bow down to personal minds, if we allow repre- 
sentative individuals to become the sole leaders of 
thought and of opinion, if we dare not stand up for our 
own divine manhood and womanhood, we shall never 
receive the highest revelation. And if we think that 
something is any the better because uttered by an illus- 
trious or popular person, or any the worse because it 
comes through the mediumship of a street urchin, we 
shall never be in a condition to deliver ourselves from 
the bonds of that mesmeric control which holds the ma- 
jority of people in the leading-strings of fashion, and 
compels them to bow at any idol-shrine, because the 



LECTURE XIX. 423 

popular voice calls them to that shrine to worship. Peo- 
ple who follow the popular idol of the hour are as fickle 
as the winds ; they change with the weather-cock, and 
are but barometers or thermometers at best, as at every 
change in the temperature or condition of the weather 
they can be pressed into the service of the greatest re- 
form, provided a good and noble man is the fashion for 
the time ; or they may be dragged to the level of the 
greatest folly and even sin and be taken in by the mean- 
est swindler, provided that swindler or imposter is at the 
top of the social ladder for the time being. Persons 
who do not use their own reason, who try instead to use 
the reason of somebody else, who do not use their own 
conscience but try to be guided by the moral sense of 
some one else, who believe that God makes a revelation 
to some other people but not to them, will never come 
into that living knowledge of truth where they will be 
able to appreciate the full dignity and power of the 
words of Jesus : " If I say the truth why do ye not be- 
lieve me ? " 

The highest grandeur and dignity of the character of 
Jesus, as portrayed in the Gospels, consisted in this : 
that he did not stand before the world and say : " I am 
God, and you will go to hell if you do not believe it " ; 
he did not say : " I am the Divine Being, and unless you 
believe I am the second person of the Blessed Trinity 
your soul is in danger " ; nothing of the kind. Jesus 
appealed to the divine sense in man ; he spoke words of 
truth, and he knew when man was willing to listen to 
the Divine Word that he had the capacity within himself 
for understanding it; therefore he said: "If I say the 



424 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

truth, why do ye not believe me?" What was the 
meaning of this? If I say what you know and feel 
inwardly to be the truth, if I make an appeal to your 
conscience, if there is a living monitor within you that 
bears witness to my spirit, which is in harmony with 
the spirit of the truth uttered through me, why not 
believe me ? why allow prejudice, pride, fashion, or any 
hope or fear of the world's praise or condemnation to 
prevent you from acknowledging truth? If any one 
had turned to Jesus and said : " I do not think what you 
say is true ; it may be true, but I do not understand it 
as truth," do you think Jesus would have occupied the 
position of the charlatan and said : " You must believe 
it, because I say it." No, he would have argued with 
such a person — not reprimanded; and even might have 
gone so far as to perform what might be called a " mir- 
acle " to produce conviction. He would have worked 
with the understanding of the critic, and spared neither 
time nor energy in making the matter plain to him, but 
never would have asked any one to accept anything 
upon his verbal authority. When the disciples of John 
came to the disciples of Jesus to inquire as to the dignity 
of their Master, did Jesus point to any authority other 
than that of practically demonstrated good? He said, in 
effect, My system, my teaching, heals the sick and casts 
out devils — that is, puts down immoralities and makes 
the world more virtuous ; blind eyes are opened, deaf 
ears hear, the lame walk ; you can therefore see for 
yourselves the blessed and beneficial effect of my teach- 
ings. For that reason, and for that reason only, you are 
called upon to acknowledge what I teach as truth. 



LECTURE XIX. 425 

There was a direct appeal to human understanding, 
to human intelligence, as well as to conscience or the 
moral sense. 

The entire question resolves itself into this : If there 
is anything marvelous or mysterious occurring, if there 
is any wonder connected with the source whence some- 
thing proceeds, if sometimes great promises are made 
involving great predictions, and you feel that while they 
do not contradict your reason they very, very far tran- 
scend it ; if statements are made to you which you can 
neither verify nor disprove because they are beyond and 
above your ken, how should you judge of the sources 
whence they emanate ? 

Judge of what is beyond your present means of inves- 
tigation by the tone and tenor of what is within the 
limits of your investigation. We should say in every 
instance that the amount of truth that is being put for- 
ward anywhere under any circumstances, may be judged 
by the effects upon the lives of those who come under 
its influence in every individual case. If you ask how 
you shall decide whether a spiritual being who manifests 
to you comes from above or from below, if you desire 
to try the spirits and prove whether they are of God, 
whether you shall accept the advice which comes from 
a spiritual source or refuse to admit it, judge it by the 
influence which comes with it and its effect upon your 
life. All those old communications with the prefix : 
" Thus saith the Lord," which when followed resulted 
in error, havoc and misery, were communications which 
would never have come to the house of Israel if it had 
not been for idolatries, backsliding and mammon-worship. 



426 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Many times " Thus saith the Lord " sanctioned murder, 
when the commandment had been already given : " Thou 
shalt not kill." " Thus saith the Lord " put to death inno- 
cent women and children who were taken prisoners in 
war. It would, in many such cases, have been more appro- 
priate if the prefix had been " Thus saith the devil." 3 
When the people were demoralized they could not dis- 
criminate between the voice of truth and the voice of 
false gods, because they themselves were sunk in immor- 
ality and idolatry, because they had descended to a 
brutal plane of thought and action, and by their own 
depravity had beclouded the moral sense ; they were 
ready to accept anything as coming from a higher world, 
provided there was something marvelous or mysterious 
about it. Was not the magical element, the merely mi- 
raculous theory, completely shown up in the account of 
the plagues of Egypt, when the magicians and sooth- 
sayers of the wicked Pharaoh endeavored to multiply 
frogs and lice ? They -accomplished it just as readily as 
did Moses; they could imitate, the magic of Moses per- 
fectly. But how did Moses show his superiority to the 
Egyptian soothsayers who sanctioned the wicked prac- 
tices of the tyrant of that day ? Moses could remove 
the plagues and they could but intensify them, Moses 
could clear the land of frogs ; he could cause the boils 
to disappear from the bodies of the afflicted. Virtue 
and health were manifested when divine power worked 
through a truly inspired leader. But as long as Moses 

1 These remarks refer exclusively to the letter of the Bible, and do 
not cast the slightest reflection upon its interior or correspondential 
meaning. 



LECTURE XIX. 427 

was playing magician and working miracles, and that 
seemed to be all the power he had, the magicians of the 
court of Pharaoh could duplicate the wonders he per- 
formed, and put in a just plea for equality with the 
representative of divine power. 

In every age of the world the same thing has occurred, 
and if any Christian says Christianity is supported by 
miracles, and the miracles are incontestable, then there 
is no evidence that Christianity is not " the devil's " 
religion ; but if, on the other hand, there is a spiritual 
power, a wealth of truth, a sound moral influence ex- 
erted in its teachings, and by those who harmonize with 
its teachings ; if there is a power accompanying all won- 
ders, to uplift, redeem, and save humanity, then the 
Christian religion rests forever sure upon the foundation 
of its moral excellence, while its miraculous side is only 
an accommodation to the as yet childish condition of a 
large number of people who have to be reached through 
the senses at first, because they have not as yet so fully 
developed their inner perception that they can do with- 
out sensuous demonstrations. 

u Try the spirits, whether they be of God." Does that 
simply mean that you should ask them who they are ? 
or see whether they can do something curious and inex- 
plicable which physical scientists will attribute to some 
unknown force in Nature, which they will also probably 
pronounce unknowable ? Does it mean that you must 
find out whether they really were some great and re- 
nowned people of old? No; but their communication 
must carry its own spiritual influence with it that appeals 
to your spiritual nature. You do not want any other 



428 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

evidence that a bird is a sweet singer than that you hear 
it sing sweetly ; you do not need any other evidence 
of the fragrance of a flower than that you inhale its per- 
fume ; shut yourself in a dark room and hear the song 
of a canary, and you do not need to see the color of its 
plumage; its voice appeals to you in the dark quite 
effectually ; you can judge of the bird by its song and 
the flower by its perfume. 

And when there comes to you from an invisible realm 
a messenger whom you do not see, when words fall upon 
your inward ear and a vision lights upon your interior 
eye ; when you feel a hand laid upon you in the darkness 
and you inquire : " Is this from above or from below ? " 
and there floods your mind along with the phenomenon 
a spiritual evidence which touches the deepest springs 
of your being ; if you are aroused to some height of 
nobility and benevolence by the influence thrown upon 
you ; if a communication humbles your pride, increases 
your charity, gives you a deeper and diviner sense of 
justice ; if it sends you out into the world determined to 
do more to help humanity than you have ever done be- 
fore, and if there is a thrill of divine response within 
you, then you can judge truly of the divinity of the 
message and the messenger by the spiritual influence 
that you feel inwardly. In every instance, then, let us 
judge by the spiritual power and influence that con- 
vinces us. When we apply the inward test, we can say 
to every spirit who approaches : " I can know of you by 
the influence you exert upon me ; can you touch my 
moral nature and elevate me to a diviner plane, or 
can you not?" We should judge of the sincerity, 



LECTURE XIX. 429 

truthfulness, and genuineness of every communication 
received, without caring, perhaps, to know where it 
comes from, or by whom it is delivered, by the in- 
fluence it leaves upon the individuals whom it reaches 
and impresses. 

We have been in meetings where people were gathered 
together in the name of truth, humbly desiring an out- 
pouring of the spirit, and we have been in places where 
there seemed to be little expectation or thought, but 
where the spirit of truth undoubtedly came ; old quar- 
rels were ended, the stingy became benevolent, the 
hard-hearted were melted to tears, wrongs were buried, 
friendships were formed, and the angel of truth showed 
its presence by these results. 

If we insist upon applying a moral rather than an 
external or sensuous test we can never be deceived, for 
whatever opportunity there may be for counterfeiting or 
masquerading on the external plane, there can be no 
counterfeit on the spiritual. A flower if it is withered 
and dead and in stagnant water, cannot by any manner 
of means give forth a sweet odor. A bird that has not 
the power of song cannot warble sweet melodies. In 
the spiritual world flowers that are not fresh and pure, 
that do not come from heavenly bowers, cannot breathe 
forth the fragrance of beauty and love ! Unclean spirit- 
birds — which are not birds of paradise — cannot imitate 
the note of the songsters of the higher spheres. 

To place ourselves forever beyond the reach of decep- 
tion is to so far cultivate our own moral sense that the 
atmosphere of deception being foreign to us, we detect 
it at once, and having outgrown the condition in which 



480 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

we can even wish to deceive or do a wrong, we shall 
be beyond the power of any to make us the victims of 
deception. 

In response to numerous interrogations on the sub- 
ject we state it as our unalterable conviction that all 
who investigate Spiritualism in any of its phases under 
proper moral conditions with a sincere desire to arrive 
at truth, with benevolent dispositions toward their 
neighbors, will ere long be blessed with authentic 
revelations from the life beyond far exceeding all 
past outpourings, as we have now seriously entered 
upon a new era in the world's progressive history, 
wherein truth will be embodied far more objectively 
than in any preceding age whose record is preserved 
in the archives of history accessible to the multitude. 



LECTURE XX. 

INGERSOLLISM AND THEOSOPHY. — COLONEL INGER- 

SOLL'S CREED. 

1. Happiness is the only good. 

2. The way to be happy is to make others happy. Other things 
being equal, that man is the happiest who is the nearest just — who 
is truthful, merciful, and intelligent — in other words, the man who 
lives in accordance with the conditions of life. 

3. The time to be happy is now, and the place to be happy is 
here, 

4. Reason is the lamp of the mind — the only torch of progress ; 
and, instead of blowing that out and depending upon darkness and 
dogma, it is far better to increase that light. 

5. Every man should be the intellectual proprietor of himself — 
honest with himself and intellectually hospitable — and upon every 
brain reason should be enthroned as king. 

6. Every man must bear the consequences, at least, of his own 
actions; if he put his hand in the fire, his hand must smart, and 
not the hands of another. In other words, each man must eat the 
fruit of the tree he plants. 

The above creed is indeed as good a one as was ever 
invented, though, of course, it does not go as far in the 
recognition of spiritual truth as many would desire to 
have it. The very word is objectionable in the ears of 
many people, though for what reason we are at a loss 
to surmise, unless it be that many foolish, ignorant, 
and dogmatic creeds have been forced upon the world, 



432 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

but such dogmatic compilations are, in many instances, 
properly speaking, not creeds at all. The word creed is 
derived from the Latin credo (I believe). Therefore, 
out of the three great creeds of Christendom, two only 
are, properly speaking, creeds ; the third is not rightly a 
creed, but a dogmatic ecclesiastical manifesto. The 
Apostles' Creed begins with "I believe," so does the 
Nicene Creed, but the Athanasian Creed begins with, 
" Quicunque vult" etc. " Whosoever will be saved, be- 
fore all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic 
faith, which faith, except every one do keep whole and 
undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." 
That awful declaration is, however, inconsistently modi- 
fied before we reach the end of the " creed," as a con- 
cluding clause reads : " They who have done good shall 
go into life everlasting." So Colonel Ingersoll is not 
excluded from eternal happiness, even on the showing 
of the pretended creed of Athanasius, who, by the way, 
if history does not lie, was not its author or compiler. 
The three creeds held alike by the Roman, Greek, and 
Anglican divisions of the Christian hierarchy show us 
how primitive simplicity and becoming modesty and 
charity were banished as soon as imperialism took root in 
Christian minds and countries. The first creed (the 
Apostles') is a simple exposition of evangelical Chris- 
tianity in terse and lucid sentences ; the Nicene Creed is 
a more elaborate and verbose exposition of the same 
doctrine, but both these creeds are so written as to chal- 
lenge no opposition. The right of freedom of speech 
would be arraigned should we question any one's right 
to express publicly, if he wishes, his religious convic- 



LECTURE XX. 433 

tions. The Athanasian Creed is not properly reprehen- 
sible because of its mysterious doctrine of a trinity con- 
sisting of three persons in the Godhead, but solely on 
account of the presumptuous blasphemy which makes 
any man, or body of men, dare to condemn their fellow 
beings to everlasting damnation, unless they agree with 
them in accepting incomprehensible notions regarding 
the nature of the Supreme Being. 

Colonel Ingersoll in reply to the savage and purblind 
criticisms and denunciations of Dr. Talmage, the em- 
inent pulpit sensationalist of Brooklyn Tabernacle, has 
favored the public with a statement of what he does be- 
lieve. He has told us for so long so much about what 
he does not believe that we are truly delighted with an 
affirmative statement from his ready pen and eloquent 
tongue. His creed is a worthy and a liberal one ; he 
does not seek to bind it as a chain about the neck of his 
brethren ; he is content to hold and proclaim it as his 
own honest belief and conviction, and in so doing chal- 
lenges the thoughtful and respectful attention of the 
entire thinking community. 

Let us take a moment's glance at the man before we 
analyze his creed. Men and their creeds always bear a 
family resemblance. A contracted creed could never 
have been drawn up by a broad, liberal man. A nar- 
row mind could never have devised such a creed as 
Ingersoll's. Ingersoll, both mentally and physically, is 
an instructive as well as an interesting subject for 
study ; his is a large, genial, breezy nature. He carries 
with him the breadth of the prairies, and is, in many 
respects, a good typical American. His intellect is 



434 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

great, but not fully developed, neither is it highly pol- 
ished. His personal appearance is attractive, strong, 
manly, fatherly, social, and withal gentle ; for, strange 
as it may seem, the author of " Mistakes of Moses," and 
other literary firebrands and bombshells, is in every sense 
a gentle and affectionate man in his friendly and domes- 
tic relations. As a father, a husband, and a citizen he is 
irreproachable, and as a lawyer he is a conscientious ad- 
vocate of liberty. As a lecturer he is a ruthless icono- 
clast in nine instances out of every ten, but every once 
in a while his tones are tender, melting, pathetic ; and 
when they are so, he moves his audience — not only to 
mingled applause and tears by his burning eloquence, 
but by the profundity and moral aptitude of his con- 
structive reasoning. As a destroyer of the world's faith 
we have often had passages at arms with Ingersoll, but 
when he undertakes to build we can only watch with 
unqualified admiration the skill and deftness of his 
work. 

Article 1 in his creed reads : " Happiness is the only 
good," - — as sweeping an assertion as it is possible for 
any one to make, and one, moreover, to which exception 
might readily be taken, but we have no desire to cavil 
or disagree ; we prefer to look deeply into this sentence 
and see if we cannot discover in it a perfect epitome of 
sound philosophy. 

That happiness is the supreme object of human 
search is self-evident, for the most religious, even when 
they profess to disregard earthly happiness, seek hap- 
piness in heaven which they believe will be of eternal 
duration; while the most unselfish, who seem not to 



LECTURE XX. 435 

seek their own individual enjoyment, devise all their 
schemes of benevolence with a view to securing the 
happiness of others. Thus happiness is clearly the uni- 
versal good desired ; whether we seek our own or that 
of others is the criterion of our selfishness or our 
philanthropy. If it is natural to man to seek hap- 
piness as the supreme goal of all his effort, may we 
not safely conclude that we are constituted by an in- 
finitely happy God whose good pleasure it is that all 
should seek and find happiness that will endure for- 
ever. This thought certainly discords with Calvinistic 
orthodoxy, but harmonizes with all liberal thought and 
spiritual philosophy. 

Article 2 in Ingersoll's creed reads : " The way to be 
happy is to make others happy. Other things being 
equal, that man is the happiest who is the nearest just — 
who is truthful, merciful, and intelligent — in other 
words, the man who lives in accordance with the condi- 
tions of life." This article being expository and exegeti- 
cal needs close analysis, and to many minds some ampli- 
fication to render it wholly acceptable alike to the moral 
sense and intellectual understanding. Its morality is 
unexceptionable. Who among moral teachers has ever 
given a supremer place to truthfulness and mercy than 
Ingersoll? Truth and mercy he places even before in- 
telligence, thereby according with what we perpetually 
insist upon, viz., that moral training is even more im- 
portant than mental culture, though both are of price- 
less value. 

Let us briefly consider the nature and especial merits 
of the three excellences to which Ingersoll gives the most 



436 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

conspicuous place in his code of ethics, in fact the only- 
three he mentions in his creed as necessary to a " just " 
man, one who, to use his own words, "lives in accord- 
ance with the conditions of life' 9 — life meaning, of 
course, something infinitely above mere vegetative ex- 
istence, as simple bodily existence is maintained by 
many who violate every condition of life in its highest 
meaning. Now what is it to be truthful, merciful, and 
intelligent? We should reply, it is to be just, loving, 
and wise. Truth must ever stand foremost among the 
virtues. We must be true to ourselves and true to 
humanity if we would make our lives peaceful, useful, 
and harmonious. What is truth ? is a question we all 
need to ask of that inward monitor we agree in calling 
conscience ; we have all a moral sense, a perception of 
right, and this inward perception or intuitive conviction 
never leads us astray. It may apparently differ in 
measure, but never in kind with different individuals. 
All may know a certain amount of truth, though all may 
not know equally much of truth. To be true is to be 
loyal to one's highest convictions of right and duty, and 
though perfection be not possible in all instances, per- 
fect truthfulness of intent is the characterizing mark of 
every noble man and woman. 

The idea of unlimited progress does not conflict in 
any sense with the highest standard of relative truth- 
fulness held up by an individual conscience as the 
guide of personal conduct. Truth demands that we 
should follow its lead instantly and unhesitatingly in 
all cases ; i.e. we must never dally with convictions ; 
never toy with conscientious scruples ; never resort to 



LECTUKE XX. 437 

the sophistry of self-excuse ; but act immediately with- 
out reluctance in accordance with our highest concep- 
tion of right. 

Truth is infinite and we are finite ; thus there is 
always an infinite ocean of truth unsounded, unexplored 
by us. In mathematical studies, problem after problem 
presents itself for solution, each one more difficult than 
its predecessor ; we may be utterly unable as yet to 
solve the more abstruse of the problems we have en- 
countered, but those which are less difficult we can 
solve readily if we will only faithfully apply the rule ; 
the more difficult ones we shall be able to grapple with 
by and by, if we are only faithful and diligent in our 
studies. There is no road to our ever mastering obsta- 
cles now apparently insuperable other than the plain 
direct path of conscientious, unflagging devotion to 
duty. Much truth is as yet veiled from us in dim 
obscurity, but our eyes grow stronger as we rightly 
use them, and every effort to follow the guidance of 
truth prepares us for deeper research into its mysteries. 
What then is our practical duty in daily life ? Should 
we always speak the truth ? Yes, except when it is our 
duty to remain silent. 

A criminal is not required by the civil law to crimi- 
nate himself in court, but he is most assuredly bound 
by the most sacred moral obligation never to utter .a 
falsehood in self-defense. There are indeed times when 
we should keep silence, as well as times when we should 
speak, but no time ever occurs when it is permissible 
to tell a lie, no, nor even to act one. But some may 
object, Is it not our duty to shield our fellow-beings ? 



438 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Are there not often extenuating circumstances which 
should be duly considered? are riot your too rigid 
moralists apt to err on the side of severity, and in over- 
looking clemency discard one of the sweetest of graces 
and most noble of virtues ? We answer unhesitatingly, 
whenever such inquiries are raised, ends never justify 
means which are not in themselves good. What is 
commonly called the Jesuitical policy is a dastardly 
one, and one moreover which must ultimately prove 
fatal to the welfare of all who adopt it. In that pathetic 
drama, "The Two Orphans," which the public are never 
tired of witnessing, a fatally weak spot mars the moral 
beauty of the character of a Sister of Charity, who is 
in every respect the embodiment of mercy. She finds 
herself in a terribly trying situation ; a child she loves 
dearly, one who leans on her as upon a tender mother, 
is in cruel danger and deep distress, and to save the 
poor blind maiden whose heart is breaking at the thought 
of an impending catastrophe, she resorts to a falsehood, 
a simple " white lie," to frustrate the evil designs of an 
unscrupulous adversary. Was such a falsehood wicked ? 
It was assuredly weak, as no one can condescend to 
employ deception as a weapon of defense if he trusts 
implicitly in the almightiness of truth. 

How few of us, alas ! have that perfect faith in truth 
which would enable us to remove every mountain of 
error out of our path if we only possessed it. Lacking 
this supreme trust in truth, we weakly yield to decep- 
tion with what we fondly call the best motive possible. 
Our intent may be good, but our policy is virtually 
suicidal. Tell the truth or preserve silence is a motto 



LECTUBE XX. 439 

we should do well to hang up in a conspicuous place in 
all our schools, homes, and places of business. 

A mistake can never be a lie, an unintentional mis- 
statement has in it none of the characteristics, and 
possesses none of the attributes of mendacity. We may 
often ignorantly and quite innocently err in judgment, 
and thus unknowingly mislead ourselves and others. 
Such error is perfectly excusable on the ground that we 
are not omniscient. Falsehood, to partake of deliberate 
and intentional opposition to truth, must be freighted 
with the intention to deceive. Of course falsehood is 
encountered in various shades of criminality ; its very 
mildest form is that in which we employ it as a cloak 
to save our neighbors from distress : in its worst degree 
it is the result of deliberate intention to wrong another. 
The three forms of lying most common may be described 
as the lie of timidity, the lie of selfishness, and the lie of 
malice. The first is of course more of a weakness than a 
sin, even though the element of sinfulness is not absent 
from it. The second is very popular, indeed awfully 
prevalent, and the source of untold misery. The third 
is the most despicable and fiendish thing imaginable on 
earth, and can never proceed from the lips of any but 
depraved persons. 

To be always truthful one needs a large stock of 
courage, and for ourselves we can scarcely see how any 
one can have the requisite amount of confidence in 
truth to be always true unless he has confidence in a 
Supreme Universal Being who is infinitely true, and 
the author and inspirer of the law of the universe ; One 
whose infinite veracity insures the triumph of truth 



440 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

and the defeat of falsehood in accordance with the very- 
nature and constitution of universal moral government. 

Ingersoll is not an avowed Theist, but so far as 
we understand him he has no prejudice against pure 
Theism. The evidences of the being of God are, in 
his opinion, not strong enough to justify his saying, 
" I believe in God." But surely, no man could place 
truthfulness in the place of highest honor, to which 
Ingersoll assigns it, were he not morally in harmony 
with the most exalted Theism. His intellect wavers 
between God and no God, but his innermost sentiments 
and noblest aspirations are all pre-eminently theistic, 
as they are also altruistic. Next to truth, Ingersoll 
places mercy, and we must remember he is defining a 
just man's character, so we take it for granted he means 
by mercy that beautiful and regal attribute of divinity 
which always was, and ever will be, the spouse of per- 
fect equity. 

Let us consider briefly the relation of justice to mercy 
in divine beneficence, and what lends added importance 
to this theme is that the doctrine of vicarious atonement 
is considered a very vital point in Christian orthodoxy. 
Our readers, doubtless, are all far too familiar with the 
orthodox theory of redemption to necessitate our re- 
hearsing it. It is, in fine, a wonderfully constructed 
edifice built upon the treacherous sand of misconcep- 
tion with regard to the relation of divine attributes, 
one toward the other. God the Father represents 
justice ; God the Son mercy ; and these two persons in 
the trinity have positively to become at variance with 
each other (at least in appearance) that justice and 



LECTUKE XX. 441 

i 

mercy may both be satisfied ere man can be redeemed 
from endless misery. 

The wretchedly blind sophistry to which this baseless 
assumption has given birth needs only to be examined 
to be instantly refuted as a libel on the very nature of 
Deity and the constitution of the universe. All who 
have attended strictly orthodox Christian churches and 
heard old-fashioned Calvinistic sermons and Sunday- 
school lessons must have felt their young minds rebel 
against the monstrous inhumanity of a schoolmaster 
who would punish an innocent boy and let a guilty one 
go free : yet this most immoral illustration of God's 
way of saving sinners was quite common not so many 
years ago, and we are not sure it has yet fallen into 
entire disuse. The great importance of discussing such 
a subject as this, is that it most nearly affects our con- 
duct one towards another, and has a most direct and 
decided bearing on the treatment of offenders by the 
civil authority. 

Now mercy and justice never had a quarrel; their 
interests were never separate. There never could be a 
time when justice clamored for revenge and mercy 
pleaded against it, for vengeance and justice are antip- 
odal both in nature and in interest, as well as in effect. 

" Retribution is mine, and I will repay, saith the Eter- 
nal," is an excellent and morally elevating Scripture 
text, but the substitution of the word " vengeance " for 
" retribution " in familiar translations, utterly beclouds 
and spoils the moral teaching of the original. A radical 
reform is needed wherever the word " vengeance " is 
used in connection with anything just and wise, and 



442 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

for any theologian to talk of divine justice and wisdom 
(to say nothing of love) and then speak of divine ven- 
geance, is for him to be guilty of a contradiction in 
terms, as well as to become the exponent of a highly 
mischievous as well as utterly false philosophy. 

Shakespeare shows how utterly impossible it is for a 
man to be just when he seeks revenge. Shylock asks 
the pound of flesh which is legally his due ; but he can- 
not obtain it without the shedding of blood, and the law 
does not permit him to shed a single drop of blood ; con- 
sequently he must forego his claim, based on the theory 
of retaliation. Not until mercy illuminates the page 
can the moral law be beheld or executed. 

We have elsewhere expressed our detestation of capi- 
tal punishment, and urged the recognition of two only 
justifiable reasons for inflicting penalties upon offenders, 
viz., their own reformation and the protection of society ; 
now we will utter a word of protest not only against 
dungeon cells, transportation for life, and other cruel 
atrocities repugnant to the moral feeling of every humane 
individual, but also against that harsh government of 
children, and inmates of public institutions, which dis- 
cords so entirely with all intelligent and merciful ideas 
of divine and human justice. We must be merciful in 
order to be just, so says Ingersoll and so say we. 

Supposing a child tells you a lie, and you have every 
reason to believe the lie deliberate and premeditated, 
you feel it to be your duty to correct your offspring for 
the two great reasons aforesaid. If a child is allowed 
to lie with impunity, the habit grows upon him, and it 
is alike unjust and unkind to permit one entrusted to 



LECTURE XX. 443 

your charge to contract and develop destructive habits 
without doing all in your power to break him of such 
habits for his own good. Then it is a greater injustice 
to society to let an unrestrained falsifier loose upon the 
world than not to keep a child away from school when 
suffering from an infectious disorder. Clearly it is our 
duty to do our utmost to eradicate the love of falsehood 
from the minds of our sons and daughters and thereby 
prevent a repetition of an offense against society. 

The question now arises, How shall the reproof be 
administered, and what shall be its nature ? Severe pun- 
ishment of an unreasonable kind ; reproofs administered 
in anger though reasonable to some extent when calmly 
given, tend to intimidate the nervous, in whom they fos- 
ter deception, but in no case do they appeal to the moral 
nature. They are utterly powerless to arouse any noble 
ambition. A child whose ears are often boxed, whose 
head is struck, who is shut up in a dark room and kept 
on bread and water till he for policy's sake offers a sullen 
or tearful apology to the parent who has maltreated or 
incarcerated him, has usually been meditating on the 
pleasure of doing wrong, and the unpleasantness of being 
found out during his term of " correction." To such a 
child, a lie becomes more than ever fascinating, and hence- 
forth his energies are devoted to devising means for 
more artful lying. Thus it is not wrong to tell a lie, in 
such a child's estimation, but it is a great misfortune to 
be discovered. By inference, therefore, it is something 
to be proud of, something to boast of among school- 
fellows and playmates who are taken into a disgraceful 
confidence, when one has been artful enough to do a 



444 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

wrong and escape detection. From among children who 
have been treated to retaliation ; from the ranks of those 
who have been severely punished by strict disciplinarians 
who were lacking in the higher moral perceptions, in- 
numerable recruits are always found to swell the ranks 
of the army of criminals we see marching through our 
streets to dock and dungeon, often, alas ! to the hideous 
gallows, or yet more frightful block. 

The greatest blessing conferred upon humanity to-day 
by professed metaphysical teachers and healers, accrues 
from the stress they lay upon the inherent goodness of 
human nature. While no justice-loving person can gloss 
over iniquity and excuse malpractice, the enlightened 
lover of justice is equally a lover of mercy, and finds it 
possible to be just while merciful, and merciful while 
just. 

Colonel Ingersoll, after having sung the praises of 
truthfulness and mercy, introduces intelligence for our 
acceptance, and in doing so, he places intellectual devel- 
opment in its proper place after moral culture. When we 
are disposed toward truth and mercy, the more we know, 
and the more power there is placed in our hands, the 
better for society. Secular training is a priceless boon. 
The common schools are among the grandest institutions 
of America, but it needs no prophet to foretell that with- 
out an appeal to the deepest moral sentiments of youth 
mere intellectual development is worse than vain. Knowl- 
edge is always power, but power placed in unscrupulous 
hands is a source of danger and terror to a community. 
Intelligence in its highest and fullest sense includes 
moral enlightenment, and standing in juxtaposition to 



LECTURE XX. 445 

truth and mercy in the creed of Ingersoll, it can mean 
no less to him. 

If we are intelligent enough to know how to deal 
wisely with the evils threatening the nation, if we know 
enough to act effectively in a moment of danger so as 
to end a panic or prevent one, we have added to our 
faith knowledge, or in • other words, our goodness of 
heart is supplemented and assisted by clearness of head. 
Simple good nature often leads to weak indulgence, and 
fosters many a vice the kind-hearted are eager to re- 
press, but know not how to do it. Many tender-hearted 
people shrink from the thought of inflicting the slight- 
est suffering on any sentient creature, and they are in- 
deed noble and wise, as well as loving, when they refuse 
to inflict the slightest pain on any sentient thing for 
their own personal welfare ; but when it comes to spar- 
ing the rod and spoiling the child, it is as though one 
were to advocate letting all prisoners, lunatics, and fever 
patients loose upon the streets. Prisons, reformatories, 
hospitals, asylums, etc., should be and will be, when 
properly conducted, no more dreadful than well-ap- 
pointed schools and workshops. Those placed under 
surveillance will be those who have proved themselves 
incompetent to govern themselves. No fixed term of 
imprisonment will constitute their sentence : the crim- 
inal will go to prison to be cured of a moral malady, 
as a lunatic is sent to an asylum to be cured of insanity, 
and a physically diseased person to a hospital to be 
restored to soundness of physique. Why should moral 
maladies be treated differently from physical and men- 
tal aberrations ? Mercy and justice are a unit in all in- 



446 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

stances, when both are rightly understood. Mercy says, 
Be kind to the offender ; Justice asks, Would you not 
also be considerate for the general weal ? Mercy replies, 
I cannot favor one at the expense of others any more 
than you can. Justice then passes a sentence favorable 
to mercy. Mercy speaks in tones of justice, and the 
two ever harmonious ones who dwell eternally together 
in the bosom of infinitude never need to be reconciled, 
for they never disagree; thus you may recommend a 
criminal from undue severity to mercy, or from justice 
to blind soft-heartedness, but a just decree is never an 
unmerciful one, as a merciful one can never be unjust. 

To revert to the old Calvinistic idea of substitution, 
as instanced by the schoolboys already mentioned, we 
must inquire why should the teacher ever punish at all. 
All legal prattle concerning the dignity of law and the 
honor of the school is just so much antiquated miscon- 
ception of the true nature of the case. Human laws are 
changing, and immediately they are found to conflict 
with human interests, need to be repealed. Law is only 
an expression of mind. If the intelligence of a republic 
improves, the laws necessarily improve. Divine Law is 
of course immutable, and therefore perfect, and so can- 
not be fairly compared with the code of any school or 
state on earth subject to change of discipline. 

The proper reason for " punishing " a child or adult is 
to reform, teach, and elevate him. The nature of the 
penalty is evil if it does not accomplish these ends. It 
should never be enforced to sustain the dignity of an 
institution any more than an operation should be per- 
formed to sustain the dignity of a surgical institute. 



LECTURE XX. 447 

When we see the matter in its true light, we shall re- 
gard punishment in the light of a necessary operation 
performed solely in the interests of an invalid, and also in 
the interests of all who risk being affected, if a conta- 
gious malady be not repressed in a neighbor. Now, how 
brutal and idiotic would the spectacle appear were a pa- 
tient who did not need the service of the surgeon's knife 
to come forward and be operated upon in the stead of 
the invalid. If a friend thought the doctors were cru- 
elly butchering a patient more delicate and sensitive 
than himself, he might reasonably request to be allowed 
to suffer in his stead, were he imbued with the belief 
that the operation was an utterly unnecessary manifesta- 
tion of anger and retaliation ; but when the authorities 
pointed out to him that the operation was for his friend's 
good, that it appeared to them the only way of saving 
his life, or at least of preventing the spread of some 
terrible disease, destructive alike to himself and others, 
his friend would be a maniac, after he understood the 
surgeon's motive, to offer himself as a substitute, while 
the doctors would be brutal and foolish in the extreme 
did they allow him to suffer unnecessarily. 

Whenever we see criminals on their way to the reform- 
atories of the future, we shall only feel for them as we 
feel for patients carried to the hospital. You often hear 
the remark, " Poor fellow^ I am very sorry for him, but 
he will be better there than at home ; he is assured of 
the best doctoring and nursing always procurable in any 
of our great hospitals." 

No thought of anger — only one of compassion — fol- 
lows the sufferer to his bed of pain. That illness or 



448 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

accident may, however, have been the direct conse- 
quence of evil doing. A drunken brawl, a sensual 
excess, an angry blow may have been the only reason 
for his prostrate condition ; still he must be pitied and 
cared for as a brother in distress. If he has sinned, he 
also suffers. It is not for us to condemn, but to help 
him to health, virtue, usefulness, and happiness. No 
one refuses to employ a man recently discharged from 
a hospital ; why then shun those who have been let out 
of prison? When our duty is truly done to our offend- 
ing brethren* no one will be put in prison but for his 
reformation ; no one will be let out until he has proved 
himself able to use wisely the privilege of liberty ; no 
one will be kept within prison walls after he has shown 
himself morally strong enough to live outside them, and 
no one will be turned adrift upon an unsympathetic 
world without means of honest maintenance. Work 
should be found for every released convict, as no one 
can reasonably be expected to live virtuously when no 
opportunity of doing so is afforded him. We have pun- 
ished iniquity long enough; and punishment has not 
availed. We must now set to work to stamp it out, to 
literally destroy evil, to lay the ax of reform at the 
root of every poisonous tree, and root up every weed 
infesting our gardens. The old idea of punishment has 
led people to believe that the wicked will be tormented 
forever, or else utterly destroyed. The former theory 
is too terrible to retain its hold much longer on any 
portion of a thinking community ; the latter, however, 
which is much milder, but also fallacious, has gained 
currency, not only among church people, who have 



LECTURE XX. 449 

revolted against the doctrine of perpetual torment, but 
also among Theosophists who have failed to grasp the 
inner meanings of the ancient esoteric doctrine they 
study so devoutly. 

Religious ideas are practically momentous, as they 
influence speech and conduct. Thus we cannot part 
with moral, spiritual, or strictly speaking, religious 
culture in the public schools. The difficulty has ever 
been to distinguish between simple morals and religious 
dogmas, and we are sure every advocate of sound, prac- 
tical, ethical teaching will be thankful to Col. Ingersoll 
for letting the public see that a champion of agnosticism, 
a reputed infidel, has some definite ideas of morality, 
and prizes truth, justice, and mercy as highly as any Jew 
or Christian. We have always advocated the complete 
secularization of the state, but not of the individual. 
We have always set our faces against the non-taxation 
of church property, and even against the reading of the 
Bible in the public schools. We have even gone so far 
as to suggest the erasure of the word Q-od and the sub- 
stitution of such a word as justice, equity, or truth in 
the inscription on the American coinage, solely because 
of the respect we consider due to those whose ideas 
upon religious matters differ from our own, and differ 
still more widely from the beliefs of all who lay claim 
to the title " orthodox," whether in Christian or Jewish 
circles. 

The point we are aiming at is to distinguish between 
morality, pure and simple, and adherence to certain 
religious ideas accompanied by attendance upon places 
of worship and the study of a literature commonly 



450 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

called sacred. Now it would be suicidal to the inter- 
ests of the state and to the safety of the community to 
ignore morals, and therefore tacitly sanction immorality. 
We know that a vast amount of evil takes its rise in no 
moral training, as well as in advocacy, or at least tacit 
indorsement, of such views and practices as undermine 
the morals of the world. Ingersoll is happily a thorough 
moralist, and doubtless his children receive from their 
parents (the most proper of all people to convey it) the 
soundest ethical instruction. Whether Ingersoll's creed 
goes far enough, in its spirit and affirmations, to com- 
pletely supply the necessity we all feel for a definite 
declaration, is an open and quite another question. 
Whatever may be its lack, so far as incentive to mo- 
rality is concerned (and people seem to be in absolute 
need of definite spiritual revelation), all must admit, so 
far as it goes (and it really goes quite a long way) it 
sanctions only virtue, and by clear inference distinctly 
reprehends vice. No idea of God is clearly an improve- 
ment upon a degrading idea of the Supreme Being, and 
for that reason we welcome agnosticism in preference to 
a horrible theology. 

Materialism is a relief from the idea of infinite ven- 
geance and endless suffering, but it is clearly unsatis- 
factory even to those who advocate it. We have only 
to listen to their speeches and read their publications 
to be convinced that materialistic ideas are far too 
barren and comfortless to support those who advocate 
them in their hours of sorrow and bereavement. They 
may be brave with the courage of stoics, who boast of 
their perfect resignation to the inevitable, but stoicism 



LECTTTRE XX. 451 

sheds no light and kindles no hope in the human breast ; 
true it offers no added misery to the mourner by con- 
juring up a hell of devouring flame into which all 
unbelievers must be cast, but while it does not terrify 
us with the orthodox hell, it robs us at the same time 
of every hope of heaven. Ingersoll is always breaking 
away from Materialism. His temperament is so san- 
guine he cannot but be hopeful. Where he cannot 
affirm he will not deny. So, when in the third article 
of his creed, he says, " The time to be happy is now, 
and the place to be happy is here," he does not neces- 
sarily deny immortality any more than did a Christian 
apostle who said with emphasis, " Now is the accepted 
time ; now is the day of salvation." Even Jesus him- 
self seems to have laid such peculiar stress on seizing 
the moment as it flies, that many people have objected 
to some of his teachings, because he said, "Be not 
anxious for the morrow." 

The Jewish Scriptures say very little about life be- 
yond the grave, the reason for this silence being the 
intense desire of Moses and his successors to keep the 
minds of the people so fixed on their present duties 
that, instead of living in an anticipated future, neglect- 
ing the now to dream of a coming time, neglecting the 
here to speculate on a hereafter (as many people unfor- 
tunately do to their own and others' detriment) they 
might be prepared for all coming time and all possible 
happiness beyond the grave, through a faithful and dili- 
gent preparation such as a noble life from day to day 
can alone afford. There is, however, another side to 
the picture, for to many people everything is in a 



452 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

motive, an ideal. How hard it is to tread a dreary, 
monotonous path uncheered by the assurance of a 
brighter prospect ahead! Ingersoll is a happy man, 
jovial, healthy, hearty ; in the prime of a vigorous man- 
hood, most agreeably situated from a worldly point of 
view. His home is his delight ; his means are ample ; 
he is, in a word, in truly affluent circumstances, and 
may well ask the fleeting hour to stay. Such a man, 
however broad his sympathies with suffering and poverty- 
stricken humanity, can never fully realize how much 
more necessary to the poor and unhappy are spiritual 
consolations than to those in health, wealth, and pros- 
perity. When Ingersoll says, " The time to be happy 
is now, and the place here,* 9 he must know that multi- 
tudes have so hard a struggle to eke out a subsistence, 
and have so many trials and difficulties to encounter, 
that happiness, for them, is not so easily procurable as 
for him whose lines have fallen in pleasant places, who 
has a very fine fig-tree and well spreading vine to sit 
under, to employ a familiar ancient metaphor. He may 
answer and so may others, " We should think little of 
ourselves and much of others ; we should be happy in 
making others happy " ; and his answer would be indeed 
true ; his advice would indeed be sound ; but from the 
days when Seneca put forth the same thought — from 
the time when Confucius proclaimed it in China, and 
Socrates in Greece — yea, and long before their time, 
when the earliest moralists of the world preached the 
old yet ever new gospel of doing all for others — though 
altruism has indeed been the noblest philosophy, it has 
gained much, and never lost one iota of its value by 



LECTURE XX. 453 

being coupled with a clear and elevating conception of 
human individual immortality. As to the ideas of end- 
less punishment and annihilation for the wicked, both 
of which are still promulgated in different sections of 
the Christian church — we object to the influence of 
them both upon society ; for, while the latter is far less 
hideous and merciless than the former, they both teach 
the incorrigibility of certain human beings. They de- 
clare that men can sin beyond redemption, or the possi- 
bility of redemption. This error, expressed in legislation, 
supports capital punishment, transportation and imprison- 
ment for life, and other hateful barbarisms to the over- 
throwing of which all truly humane and enlightened 
persons are directing their most zealous efforts. 

Whatever opinion some of our readers may have 
formed of metaphysics — however prejudiced some may 
be against what is commonly called Christian Science, 
all must admit that the system has one great redeeming 
feature, and that is its refusal to regard any one as in- 
corrigibly wicked or hopelessly lost. We, most of us, 
actually need a spiritual impetus, or we falter on our 
journey, and fail in the accomplishment of reformatory 
work. We need to see with the eye of the spirit a 
happy time and blessed place when and where all we 
undertake to help will stand arrayed in the white robes 
of purity, cleansed from all defilement. We need to 
hear with our spiritual ears a song of triumph proceed- 
ing from the lips of those who now utter falsehood and 
curses. If we are to strive to be truly happy, now and 
here, we venture to say we cannot become thoroughly 
so, as a people (whatever exceptional individuals may 



454 STUDIES IK THEOSOPHY. 

accomplish), we cannot do our best, most thorough and 
successful work to raise our weaker brethren, unless we 
are cheered and strengthened in some degree by a hold 
on immortality. If any of us can be just, true, merci- 
ful, intelligent, philanthropic, useful, and happy, as Inger- 
soll would have us, without any knowledge of the beyond, 
we are highly privileged individuals, and must enjoy 
dispositions of exceptional amiability. For us in that 
case life after seeming death will be a beautiful and most- 
welcome surprise — perhaps all the more beautiful and 
welcome because we did not look forward to it; but 
for the majority, true Spiritualism, divested of all ex- 
traneous matter, free from all belittling superstitions and 
follies, offers solid comfort and help, unrivaled by all 
other systems of philosophy. Pure and unadulterated 
Spiritualism teaches what Ingersoll teaches in the first 
three articles of the noble creed we have endeavored to 
review. 



LECTURE XXL 

" ROBERT ELSMERE ; " OR, THE OLD FETTERS AND THE 

XEW FAITH. 

Among the many valuable and interesting works now 
before the world, no one has excited greater interest 
than Mrs. Humphrey Ward's religious novel "Robert 
Elsmere." That it should have created such extraor- 
dinary interest in America, may be like the astounding 
interest centered in Moody's preaching; one- of the 
psychological marvels of the day, and this for two 
reasons : First, the work does not really advance any 
very strange or startling theory. Second, it is a story of 
English not American life, and records the struggles of 
a clergyman of the English church who makes his way by 
painful processes of thought and action from a "living" 
in a rural district, where he is the rector of a compara- 
tively unimportant parish, to the broad open field of 
unfettered and almost creedless humanitarian effort. 
A little closer inspection of the details of the story will 
soon, however, convince even the superficial reader that 
the interest taken in the book does not center in any 
reference to place or period, or in any character how- 
ever finely drawn, but in the fierce conflict between 
orthodox literalism and heterodox spiritualism therein 
so graphically presented. 



456 STUDIES IX THEOSOPHY. 

Mrs. Ward is a vivid portrait painter, her characters 
are all decidedly drawn, they are all widely different 
the one from the other ; each is a study in itself and 
even the least important have a fascination for any 
reader who delights in a vivid portrayal of human in- 
dividuality, whether he can admire the type under con- 
sideration or not. The book shows us many characters, 
but not too many, as they never get mixed and each is 
essential to a perfect tale, such as the one so graphically 
told in 680 closely printed pages in the full size Amer- 
ican paper edition. Some critics have of course said 
the story was too long, unnecessarily spun out ; some 
have complained that others than the central figures 
have received too much notice ; but such criticisms are 
exceedingly shallow and unfounded, as the real merit 
of the work is in its completeness, which consists in its 
elaborate analysis of the surroundings of the hero, and 
its careful explanation of the varied influences which 
shaped his thought and determined his conduct. Rob- 
ert Elsmere is not an ordinary man, though educated 
in an ordinary way, so far as outward appearances go. 
His mother was by no means an ordinary woman, and 
without the careful description of her character and 
influence over her son in the opening chapters, one of 
the most essential factors in Robert's education would 
have been left out. 

Robert, as a boy, predicts his own future, and to any 
careful and experienced student of mental tendencies, 
his early days led by a perfectly natural course to his 
subsequent career. Robert Elsmere is from the first 
a free spirit, impatient of all restraint, his bodily frame 



LECTURE XXI. 457 

is weak, his mind ardent, his feeling intense ; his mother 
is an excitable, singular woman, very industrious, self- 
centered, unselfish, nervous, and self-opinionated with- 
out being in the least self-conceited. She and her son 
are everything to each other, they have no secrets 
from each other; she is both playmate and teacher; an 
Irishwoman of a very noble type, she combines an 
indomitable love of personal liberty with an intense 
regard for the rights of everybody else. Anything like 
meretricious display is odious to her ; ritualistic curates, 
whom she suspects of being only half sincere are her 
pet abomination, and though her son seems destined to 
become a clergyman, and she is a deeply religious 
woman, she cannot but make special fun over the 
eccentricities of the clerical profession ; for to her the 
ministry of religion must be a life, not a trade; and 
where the minister of the gospel is only a tradesman, 
selling his wares, she despises the man while she loves 
the gospel he dishonors. Robert goes to Oxford at the 
usual age, accompanied by his mother, and there in the 
very midst of ecclesiastical supremacy and literary con- 
servatism he makes friends with two learned men, both 
professors in the University, neither of whom are in the 
slightest degree orthodox in sentiment or proclivity. 
One of these, Henry Grey, is a practical heroic saint, 
in the guise of a religious rationalist ; the other, Edward 
Langham, is a dilettant man of letters, whose temper is 
as melancholy as Grey's is energetic, and whose philoso- 
phy is as depressing as Grey's is bracing. In the exe- 
cution of the portraits of these two men, the authoress 
displays consummate genius ; she brings into the most 



458 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

striking relief two directly opposite types of so-called 
liberals with which we are all apt to become familiar. 
Both are rationalists in the usual acceptance of that 
word, but one acts and thinks as though everything in 
life were worthy of the loftiest endeavor, while the 
other concludes that nothing is really worth the effort 
required to accomplish it even decently. 

Grey's mind is constantly expanding, Langham's per- 
petually dwindling; and between these diametrically 
opposite poles of radicalism at Oxford the young student 
for the ministry of the established church of England 
finds himself placed. He passes through his studies, 
however, without realizing that there is anything in the 
creeds and articles of the church to which he cannot 
conscientiously subscribe ; he takes orders and accepts 
a living without any conscientious scruples, though the 
fact is never disguised that his physical weakness con- 
siderably influences his settlement at length, in a quiet 
country district. Had he been physically stronger, he 
would have sought active work in London or some 
great manufacturing city, where he could have strained 
every nerve to meet the requirements of a large and 
needy parish ; he is therefore* at the very outset of his 
ministerial career, crippled by bodily weakness, and 
with a most vigorous mind and ardent spirit has seem- 
ingly to yield to the dictates of weak flesh or break 
down before his work has even fairlv commenced. 

Before entering upon the living in Surrey which is in 
the gift of a peer of the realm, a relative of Elsmere's, 
he travels in many countries, always accompanied by 
his mother, and then visits Westmoreland, where he is 



LECTUKE XXI. 459 

introduced, in the performance of his clerical duties 
as a curate there, to the Leyburn family from which he 
selects the eldest daughter, Catherine, to be his wife. At 
that period of his early manhood, at the outset of his 
career as a clergyman, just when he is most intensely 
impressionable in all directions, he finds in a woman 
whom he compares to St. Elizabeth, one whom he feels 
may be indeed his " twin soul," she of all others who 
can share his work with him and make him all he is 
capable of becoming, while apart from her he feels him- 
self utterly at the mercy of influences and temptations, 
of the strength and subtlety of which he can form no 
adequate idea, but which he instinctively and deeply 
feels would be sufficient to overwhelm him, or at least 
disqualify him utterly for a noble performance of his 
duty, were he left to fight them singiehanded. 

Catherine Leyburn and Robert Elsmere are extreme 
opposites ; she is quiet in the extreme, he is as turbu- 
lent in nature as she is self-contained, but her passivity 
is in no sense the quiet unresisting temper of a character 
not decided ; in her quietness is her strength ; her mar- 
velous fund of reserve power forcibly illustrates the 
truth of the old adage, u Still waters run deep," and 
while she can but very rarely be brought to betray an 
emotion, when her feelings are too strongly aroused, 
the pent-up tide of emotion in her nature bursts forth 
all the more impetuously, and sways her all the more 
violently by reason of the constant restraint to which 
she invariably subjects all her feelings. Catherine's 
mother is an utterly inconsequent woman, from whom 
she seems to have inherited nothing ; her father passed 



460 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

from earth in her early youth (she is twenty-six years 
of age when we are first introduced to her) ; from him 
she seems to have inherited largely, and in her eyes he is 
a saint ; around his memory her deepest affections clus- 
ter, and her loyalty to all that she conceives to have been 
his wishes is touching in the extreme. She rules her 
mother tenderly and lovingly, as though she were the 
mother and her mother a delicate child needing inces- 
sant care. Her two sisters she also regards as entrusted 
to her charge, and as they are both her juniors by 
several years, her guardianship of them seems perfectly 
natural ; the elder of the two seems an easy, graceful 
girl of no very marked proclivities, but Rose, the 
youngest member of the family, is a very decided 
character, passionately devoted to the violin, which she 
plays superbly. Possessed with an indomitable will 
and an irrepressible desire for freedom, her spirit natu- 
rally rebels against the quiet domineering of her elder 
sister whom she really loves, however, and who decid- 
edly loves her ; but the woman and the girl do not 
understand each other, and they present to our mind 
one of those vivid contrasts we often meet in members 
of the same family, which seem to forcibly illustrate 
the truth of the now widely accepted theory that flesh 
and blood relationships are not necessarily those of 
spirit. 

Robert Elsmere and Catherine Leyburn have one 
very great and important point of resemblance which 
forms a solid basis for their mutual attraction ; they are 
both extremely conscientious ; he is diffident about pro- 
posing to her at first, on account of his deep sense of 



LECTURE XXI. 461 

his own un worthiness ; she refuses him when he first 
offers himself to her (though she truly loves him), from 
an exaggerated sense of duty, and of her importance as 
the guardian and director of her mother's household. 
When the mother finds out the true state of affairs, she 
almosts insists upon Catherine accepting Robert, and 
after tears and prayers and much inward conflict, she 
consents to be the wife of a man whom she admires as 
well as loves, and who regards her more in the light of 
a divinitj' than of an ordinary woman. 

His marriage marks a very important epoch in the 
young clergyman's life ; he goes to Surrey, and imme- 
diately upon his establishment as rector of Murewell, a 
mere village with a population chiefly composed of rus- 
tics, he begins to effect many decided improvements in 
the condition of the place ; he and his wife are all in all 
to each other, she seconds his every enterprise, enters 
heart and soul into every detail of his parish work, and 
proves herself in all things a woman of the noblest self- 
denying effort and charity ; benevolence and self-f orget- 
fulness come naturally to her ; she has been always ac- 
customed to do and think for others. Among the poor, 
the sick, the lonely, the erring, the outcast, she is a 
ministering angel and it is plain to see that Mrs. Ward, 
in faithfully depicting the heroic sanctity of a woman 
with whose religious views she is by no means fully in 
sympathy, is as unbiased as one well can be -by any pre- 
dilections of her own ; but Catherine, a St. Elizabeth 
though she may be in many ways, is continually dis- 
playing her lack of breadth of mind; her's is a noble 
heart, but her intellect is narrow ; with all her goodness 



462 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

she is decidedly illiberal in sentiment and constantly falls 
into the error common to all strictly orthodox persons ; 
she can deal very tenderly with sinners, even with crimi- 
nals she can be gentle, but for honest heretics she has 
no mercy. Heresy in her eyes is crime; unorthodox 
opinion is worse in her eyes than flagrant immorality, 
and with all her own honest purity of heart and life she 
can be far more lenient with unblushing vice than with 
honest skepticism ; errors of opinion are worse offenses 
in her eyes than sins of the deepest dye. On one occa- 
sion when Mr. Langham has visited them and succeeded 
in awakening the affections of her sister Rose, who was 
on a visit to Murewell at the time, and the girl asks her 
elder sister if she could have married a man who did 
not believe in Christ, she answers impetuously: " To me 
it would not be marriage." 

Such a woman could not be expected to sympathize 
with, or even tolerate the slightest departure from the 
very strictest line of evangelical orthodoxy, and the very 
serious defect in her habit of thought which causes her 
such bitter sorrow a little later on, is manifested most 
unpleasantly in her inability to admire the sterling ex- 
cellence of a man like Henry Grey because, despite his 
deep and noble earnestness and integrity, he is not a 
believer in the orthodox interpretation of the Bible. 

A very important, interesting, but in some respects 
decidedly forbidding, character is Mr. Wendover, the 
squire of Murewell, a man nearer seventy than sixty, 
without family and seemingly almost devoid of all 
human sympathy ; a veritable literary fossil, a man of 
prodigious intellect, a voluminous author, an erudite 



LECTURE XXI. 463 

scholar, but a cynic and misanthrope living almost the 
life of a recluse, with no near relative or friend to share 
his magnificent mansion, save a curious, flighty sister, 
a strange little lady, whom one feels often ready to pity 
and sometimes almost to despise. This squire is the 
possessor of a splendid library ; his collection of books 
is unsurpassed anywhere in England. 

Robert Elsmere loves books and longs to devour the 
contents of the squire's library, and so long as the squire 
has been absent traveling on the continent, the rector 
has enjoyed freedom of access to the Hall library. On 
the return of the squire his agent, Henslowe (a 
thoroughly detestable man), prejudices his employer 
against the rector on account of the disgraceful condi- 
tion of a portion of the squire's estate which is allowed 
to remain in a disgusting, disease-engendering condition ; 
the squire trusts his agent and believes the lies he pours 
into his ears against Elsmere, falsehoods he is the more 
ready to accept as truth by reason of his prejudice 
against clergymen and enthusiasts in general, and Els- 
mere is both a clergyman and an enthusiast. 

For some time the rector works as best he can, doing- 
a large amount of work in and out of the church, and 
carrying on important literary labor of a historical kind, 
under decided difficulties and at considerable expense, 
on account of his determination to be under no obliga- 
tion to the squire, whose books he insisted on returning 
to their owner immediately a misunderstanding had 
arisen between the two gentlemen, brought about by 
the rector's statement concerning Mile End being dis- 
regarded by the squire in favor of Henslowe's garbled 



464 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

account, intended to provoke hostility between his em- 
ployer and the philanthropic rector. 

After a while a terrible disorder breaks out in the 
wretched tumble-down hovels of that forsaken district. 
The squire is abroad at the time, but arrives home just 
soon enough to be brought face to face with the fright- 
ful misery of the inhabitants of this shamefully neglected 
portion of his property, and to witness with his own 
eyes the heroic fortitude of Mr. and Mrs. Elsmere. 

Squire Wendover is a man who cannot be moved to 
the outward expression of deep feeling; his nature is 
of that painfully repressed type common to a school of 
intensely rationalistic literary minds. Such a nature is 
not however without feeling, and while a man of that 
caliber will not say much, he will freely place his purse 
at the disposal of an intensely sincere and thoroughly 
practical, philanthropic enthusiast like Robert Elsmere, 
when he has become convinced that the energetic 
worker has solid grounds for his undertakings. From 
that day the squire and the rector became fast friends ; 
in many a country walk they enjoyed each other's soci- 
ety immensely, as two men of diametrically opposite 
temperaments and yet with many tastes in common fre- 
quently do. As we see them constantly together, we 
readily trace the softening, mellowing influence, almost 
imperceptibly exerted upon the aged cynic by the youth- 
ful and impetuous enthusiast; and even more clearly 
do we observe how the aged scholar (who delights in 
nothing so much as in the destruction of all that appears 
to him as superstitious folly) gradually undermines 
Elsmere's religious superstructure of dogmatic creed 



LECTURE XXI. 465 

and ecclesiastical usage, but never does he seem to 
shake the young clergyman's vivid apprehension of God 
in the universe and in the human soul. At this period 
(the most intensely trying one imaginable in the career 
of a young man of Elsmere's temper) an extremely 
ascetic priest of the most fervid Catholic evangelical 
type urges Elsmere to join in a u retreat " at a neigh- 
boring village, and there seek to overcome what the 
priest regards as the most pernicious effects of religious 
free-thinking, at the foot of the altar of personal self- 
surrender to the voice of the church, in the most un- 
compromising manner. Mr. Newcome, the Anglican 
priest, not at all an uncommon figure in "high church" 
circles both in England and America, is an unquestion- 
ably good man ; a man, however, who sees nothing out- 
side of orthodoxy but damnation. Such a narrow view 
cannot commend itself to the budding and ever-expand- 
ing genius of our hero ; and thus Newcome must turn 
away saddened and depressed, half in anger, half in 
pity, from the man for whom he entertains a warm, dis- 
interested friendship, but with whom he cannot possi- 
bly associate after he has discovered his persistence in 
heretical opinion. Once in a while this thin, pleading, 
but commanding figure in long, black clerical attire, 
appears on the scene of Elsmere's work; but at length 
very seldom, and then only when he feels impelled by 
what he regards as the voice of the Almighty, to call 
back his wandering servant to the fold. Here again 
we are constrained to pause an instant to most warmly 
commend the authoress's exquisite fairness in dealing 
with the representatives of all shades of opinion and 



466 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

schools of thought. She paints the ascetic priest as a 
noble fellow, while she shows up as plainly as can be 
done, the defects in persons whose opinions coincide far 
more nearly with her own, and it is for this reason that 
we regard Mrs. Ward as an epoch-making woman in 
the field of romantic religious literature ; for if the 
future church of humanity, foreseen by prophetic minds 
through all the ages, is ever to be established, its mem- 
bers must be those who can allow no intellectual differ- 
ences or agreements to becloud their judgment or per- 
vert their will. 

Mr. Newcome and Catherine Elsmere are neither of 
them liberal-minded, but they are both truly excellent 
in their peculiar ways; both are deeply in earnest in 
proclaiming and maintaining what they feel (and think 
they know) to be divine truth; both are evangelicals, 
he of the Catholic, she of the Protestant type ; but they 
both insult reason to feed hysterical emotion ; both are 
narrow and intellectually very shortsighted. Let either 
of them present their hearts to the judgment of the 
sincere of all persuasions, and they immediately invite 
and obtain the deepest affection and most loving appre- 
ciation from all whose affection is worth the having; 
but let them present their minds for inspection to the 
just and liberal, and the verdict pronounced must be 
that they are deficient, lamentably so in critical ability, 
and painfully predisposed to exalt dogma to the very 
throne of heaven. 

A crisis is speedily reached in Elsmere's mental evo- 
lution ; he soon finds himself no longer able to remain 
in the Church of England as a minister ; were he a lay- 



LECTURE XXI. 467 

man, he could continue, no doubt, to worship in his 
accustomed place, but his keen sense of honor sternly 
revolts against all endeavor to effect a compromise 
between conviction and appearance. 

Some of Mrs. Ward's very best writing is where she 
shows up in its true light the evasive position held by 
many clergymen who retain their livings only through 
their personal popularity and influence, or their singular 
power to twist language and give words a meaning they 
do not possess to the ears of ordinary listeners. Robert 
Elsmere must leave the church, he will not wait to be 
turned out or even allow himself to be tried for heresy ; 
he will go out, and his leaving the church thus sug- 
gests far more topic for thought and discussion than a 
series of lectures or even volumes could exhaust. 

We know that some men who remain in a church 
while they are not in sympathy with its dogmas are 
thoroughly sincere, and as their course commends itself 
to their own consciences they are undoubtedly right in 
staying where they are ; such men, or at least, the great- 
est of them, have something of the work to do attempted 
by Savonarola ; but was Savonarola successful in reform- 
ing the church from within ? History, alas ! answers 
with a decided negative. But then it can easily be 
argued that Savonarola's work was to purge out immo- 
rality rather than to perfect a change in religious doc- 
trine, consequently in a licentious age the will of the 
ruling party opposed him, while reformers in the Prot- 
estant communions of to-day have the sympathy of 
the masses on their side, who only need a more liberal 
education to bring them out of the wilderness of dog- 



468 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

matic theology into the fair promised land of complete 
freedom from intellectual and ceremonial restriction. 

Archdeacon Farrar of Westminster is fully as un- 
orthodox as the much revered and lamented Dean Stan- 
ley, also of Westminster, whose " History of the Jewish 
Church" is almost as radical as the utterances of the 
celebrated Colenso, late Bishop of Natal, South Africa. 
This man, popularly known as Canon Farrar, is, how- 
ever, in no equivocal position ; he is in a most conspicu- 
ous position, from which his light shines over the earth 
as well as over England, as the head of the Broad Church 
party ; but he publicly announces his position, and it is 
a clearly defined, and to his mind a thoroughly tenable 
one ; he does not tacitly ignore objectionable dogmas, he 
boldly attacks and refutes them, and while many gifted 
men and women both in and out of the church cannot 
agree with his standing where he does while saying what 
he does, no one with a grain of judgment or an ounce of 
perception can accuse Farrar of willful temporizing. 

In New York City, Heber .Newton preaches decided 
radicalism in an Episcopal church; almost everybody 
knows what his views are on the Bible, the atonement, 
and every other leading doctrine of the church. Many 
people, of course, condemn him for remaining where he 
is, and declare his position an anachronism of the worst 
kind, but is it? Is he not one of an ever-enlarging 
number of excellent and learned men who believe it to 
be their mission to revise creeds and restate theology 
within the precincts of the church itself? 

Now, many a man has been ignominiously thrust out 
of the church for entertaining and preaching the very 



LECTURE XXI. 469 

views one can now hear promulgated from avowedly 
evangelical pulpits almost every day, and certainly 
twice every Sunday. Why is this but because ecclesi- 
astical authorities are apt to be extremely wary ? It does 
not do to weaken the church, as it would be weakened, 
were men of great popularity and ability constantly 
thrust out of its body ; and it is but fact, that personal 
influence, more than all besides, usually influences the 
final decision. Can we afford to lose the man ? is the 
chief question asked by those in whom the power to ex- 
communicate resides. For those who toy with their 
conscience, juggle with words, repress convictions, and 
make ministerial duties simply matters of business, we 
can have no sympathy, for while a man has a right to 
earn his living by preaching w T hat he does believe, he 
has no right to earn a penny, even were he in destitu- 
tion, by preaching what he does not believe, or through 
ingenious processes of prevarication, which are doubtless 
cleverer but no less sinful than downright lying. 

All cant about unpaid ministers is folly. Business is 
not a disgrace, and those who object to clergymen re- 
ceiving salaries are never logical in their arguments or 
apt in their illustrations. The whole question is, How 
far are you honest? To what extent does your con- 
science approve your method of obtaining a livelihood? 
The strictest conscientiousness should be demanded of 
a clergyman, but no less should be exacted of a business 
man. Elsmere could not take a penny of the church's 
money ; he could not preach another Sunday after he 
knew that he did not indorse the words his lips would 
be compelled to repeat while reading the service, and it 



470 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

is, after all, the liturgy rather than the sermon that most 
sorely taxes the conscientious liberal. 

There are plenty of hymns one can select which do 
not offend against liberal sentiment, and there is an 
almost unlimited choice of topics for discourse open to 
a religious radical, even when in a conservative pulpit ; 
but portions of creeds and litany, as well as the endings 
of many prayers and collects, place the liberal-minded 
Episcopal minister in a sorry fix. If he is anything of 
a mystic, or a Theosophist, he can use every word with 
the mental reservation that he employs it in the under- 
standing of its hidden meaning, but can an honest man 
do this in a place where he dare not explain this mean- 
ing to his congregation ? 

In a Swedenborgian place of worship the congregation 
knows that the Scriptures are understood spiritually, 
that psalms are not taken in their letter ; but the min- 
ister in such a church can enter his pulpit with an un- 
fettered tongue and expatiate freely on the hidden 
meanings of the sacred word. In Robert Elsmere's 
extremity he very wisely consults with his noble friend, 
Professor Grey. He makes a flying visit to Oxford, and 
in his old tutor's sanctum unburdens his mind freely. 
The gist of Grey's advice is, conceal nothing from your 
wife; return home instantly and tell her everything. 
Mr. Grey does not appear, with all his insight, to have 
sounded the depths of Catherine Elsmere's religious 
fanaticism, and thus he cannot tell how agonizingly 
she will suffer when she feels called upon to decide 
between Christ and her husband, for so the matter must 
appear to her. Then the question of the father's influ- 



LECTURE XXI. 471 

ence over the little daughter will add fresh pangs to 
her torture, for remember she regards intellectual ortho- 
doxy as the only passport to heaven and means of re- 
demption from hell. Here a homily on marriage might 
well be preached, and as Mrs. Mona Caird's question, 
Is marriage a failure ? has not yet lost its interest for 
the popular mind, we cannot refrain from a hasty analy- 
sis of Elsmere's partial mistake in marrying Catherine 
Leyburn, for it cannot be denied that he and she were 
both made indescribably wretched in consequence of 
their terribly ill-matched intellects. 

They loved each other truly and tenderly from first 
to last and were a decided blessing the one to the other ; 
of this there can be no doubt. But is love all that is 
needful to secure a truly happy marriage? Love is 
blind when not united with wisdom. Affection without 
reason, heart without head, will always run astray ; and 
where natures may be the purest and ideals the highest, 
intellectual incompatibility will frequently prove the 
source of untold misery. Husband and wife need not, 
and should not, be alike ; they may differ widely, but 
they must not disagree. One may sing and not paint ; 
the other may paint and not sing ; but the singer must 
love pictures and the painter must love song. One 
temperament may be emotional, the other intellectual, 
but they must complement, not antagonize each other. 
Red contrasts with gold or blue, and while these colors 
are intensely dissimilar, their combination produces 
charming and harmonious effects. 

To all young people contemplating matrimony our 
exhortation is : Do not sacrifice either heart to head or 



472 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

head to heart. Marriage is a partnership not requiring 
similarity of attainment in the members of the firm, but 
imperatively demanding unity without uniformity — 
harmony as beyond unison. Husband and wife may 
differ as a soprano voice differs from a basso profundo, 
or as the music of a violin differs from that of a cornet, 
but they must be able to sing or play together, so that 
harmony, not discord, is produced. 

Conservative Hebrews and Roman Catholics are quite 
right in discouraging mixed marriages, for where one is 
an ardent believer in one system of faith and the other 
is equally earnest in defending a counter-system, har- 
mony is impossible ; and where there are children, what 
can be more terrible in its effects than a constant jar be- 
tween parents ? Mixed marriages of an objectionable 
kind are not necessarily marriages where the contracting 
parties are one Jew and the other Gentile, or one Cath- 
olic and the other Protestant, for in San Francisco, for 
instance, the Jewish Temple Emanu-El, has often pre- 
sented a delightful picture of true harmony between 
liberal Jew and liberal Christian. Dr. Stebbins, the 
Unitarian pastor, has conducted public Thanksgiving 
services with Dr. Cohn and Dr. Voorsanger in the Tem- 
ple, and who could decide where the vital differences 
were in the theology of these three estimable gentlemen ? 
But let a Hebrew or a Unitarian marry a rigid Presby- 
terian of the old school ; or let a devout Roman Catholic 
marry a bigoted Protestant or a skeptic, how can har- 
mony prevail ? People who have convictions must make 
their convictions the basis of their union. Physical 
charms may quickly disappear, accomplishments may 



LECTURE XXI. 473 

cease to inspire admiration, but deep-seated convictions 
are permanent. Two unformed minds may marry in 
early youth, and if mutually loving and sympathetic, 
may form themselves into one. Two formed minds who 
know they agree on all vital points, can marry with the 
greatest safety ; but an unformed mind, coupled with an 
ardent progressive temper, like that of Robert Elsmere 
in his early twenties, uniting itself with a thoroughly 
set mind like that of Catherine Leyburn, must inevitably 
bring bitter sorrow ; for they are both so intense in their 
feelings that not to feel alike is to suffer beyond descrip- 
tion. A youth's marriage with a woman, mentally ma- 
ture, though still young in years and physically youthful, 
must be a mistake, unless the young man's mind is so 
open to his wife's influence that she can be his guide, 
or at least his companion in intellectual pursuits. 

In this age the intellect cannot and will not be pa- 
tiently submissive to the heart. Intellect and affection 
themselves insist upon being married in every reasonable 
and healthy individual, and though goodness of heart is 
the mainspring of all virtue, a good heart and a level head 
are both needed when two young people agree to enter 
upon a compact, the most sacred and binding on earth. 

As Elsmere's mind expands ever wider and wider, 
opening like a beautiful flower to the sunshine and pure 
air of fresh progressive thought, Catherine retires deeper 
and deeper into herself and sees in her husband's ear- 
nest and successful efforts to bless his fellows, nothing 
better than a fight against Christ and his gospel. Very 
slowly and by very painful steps is she at length led to 
believe that after all he may be following the Master in 



474 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

a way she knows not of, but she never enters fully into 
his work; she cannot. She remains in the old way, 
drinking old wine from an old bottle, while he cannot 
partake of any other than the new wine of the new dis- 
pensation from a new bottle, ever expanding in his hands 
as the new wine ferments within it. 

Robert Elsmere's theology is sublime ; his work Christ- 
like in the highest sense. He reaches the secularists on 
their own ground in their own halls ; he shows them the 
worthlessness and the wrong of their incendiary and 
shallow methods of attack on all religious things. He 
reconceives the Christ ; he strips the man of Nazareth of 
all fictitious adornment, and like Count Tolstoi of Russia, 
he leaves a magnificent human worker and exemplar, as 
loving as the model of Renan, but far more vigorous and 
manly. He is able, through a. thorough identification 
with workingmen, to bring to them the practical gospel 
they so sorely need. In his hands social and political 
problems are taken out of the arena of fierce and acri- 
monious partisanship and placed where they belong in 
the arena of religious thought and feeling. 

Religion is the science of right living. Religio, to 
bind, means to unite, not to enslave ; and when all are 
bound together in the chains of true co-operative fellow- 
ship — when the demon, competition, is cast from out 
our minds — then, but not till then, will dawn the golden 
day when 

" Peace shall over all the earth 
Its undimmed splendors fling, 
And the whole earth send back the song 
The blessed angels sing. ,, 



LECTURE XXII. 

CHRIST RE-CONCEIVED ; OR, THE BASIS OF THE NEW 

RELIGION. 

Now that we are engaged in a study of comparative 
theology, we find ourselves daily more and more in sym- 
pathy with the work of Lady Caithness, who, in her 
M Mystery of the Ages," (the very best book on Theos- 
ophy ever published for general readers,) explains to the 
satisfaction of every genuine scholar and true radical or 
rationalist (using those terms as their use is justified by 
etymology), how both the historical and astronomical 
characters presented to students of mythology are de- 
signed to conceal great spiritual truths pertaining to the 
origin, progress, and destiny of the human soul ; truths 
common to all religious systems and therefore super- 
theological as theology is ordinarily understood. Now 
it is with the universal spiritual element in religion, 
(the science of right living) that we have properly to 
deal, not with curious speculative theories and historical 
uncertainties ; for until religion is taken out of all par- 
ticular time and place, and posited in the universal, it 
is less than religion proper. A religion in the narrow 
sense in which there may be many religions, it may be, 
but religion unqualified by article or adjective, it can- 
not be. 



476 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

Now a study of the world's several great systems of 
religion leads every unbiased mind to the conclusion 
that the spirit of religion is one. Religious conceptions 
are innate in the human soul ; and gradually revealed, 
manifested, expressed, or evolved as the human intellect 
permits the soul's conviction to filter through it. Such 
men as Piazza S my the, the celebrated Scotch astrono- 
mer, endeavor to account for the great Egyptian pyra- 
mid only on the supposition of supernatural miracle ; 
but in so doing they limit and dwarf man's idea of the 
Supreme Being, and while striving to honor God they 
are in reality belittling Him, for what can be smaller or 
more puerile than the notion that God has to change 
or supersede law in order to fulfill his own design, or 
accomplish good to humanity. The student of archaeol- 
ogy traces the gradual development of the human race for 
perhaps more than 50,000 years, and instead of rejecting 
the testimony of earth and ocean to the astonishing 
antiquity of man, gladly avails himself of every means 
of verifying whatever story of human antiquity tends 
to clear away the fog of the mysterious, and present to 
intelligence a comprehensible and rational picture of 
gradual but incessant human progress. 

In this transitional period of thought, it is highly 
necessary to deal in positive affirmations ; nothing short 
of gnosticism will satisfy the tired intellect and wounded 
restless heart, worried and disappointed with philosophic 
agnosticism, (scholarly ignorance). Souls no sooner 
break away from the traditional view of the Christ, than 
they feel called upon to re-conceive the Christ, and 
while this re-conception may be at first inadequate in 



LECTURE XXII. 477 

many respects, it is generally healthful, hopeful, prac- 
tical, and sublime. The Christ idea is in reality, how- 
ever, a much larger idea than either the orthodox or 
heterodox imagine it to be. According to Theosophy, it 
is much broader than any ideal which can find its fulfill- 
ment in either a supernatural incarnation of deity, once 
in the history of the planet ; or in the life of an excellent 
but, nevertheless, imperfect man ; and it is to the latter 
view unfortunately that liberal religious thought almost 
invariably turns. Now the Christ idea must not be con- 
founded with the personal appearance of any Messiah, 
nor with the biography of any hero, no matter how 
noble. In Egypt the Christ idea found its exemplifica- 
tion many thousands of years before Christ, in the em- 
bodiment, according to ancient tradition, of the angel of 
the sun (Osiris). 

The life of this " incarnate god " is clearly written on 
many an antique scroll, and shown forth to perfection in 
the interior construction of the great pyramid ; but to all 
who are in any degree familiar with the hidden truths 
of Egyptian Theosophy, the personal career of the em- 
bodied Osiris is known to be a delineation of the univer- 
sal experiences of the human soul, of which the sun is 
the symbol according to the ritual of antiquity. 

Gerald Massey and other authors of his school of 
thought have thrown much valuable light on the astro- 
nomical aspects of mythology, but it is reserved for the 
true Theosophist to penetrate deeper into the spirit and 
explain how astronomical facts as well as personal his- 
tories have all been pressed into the service of a sublime 
and universal philosophy (or rather science), in which 



478 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

the heavenly bodies as well as the lives of men have all 
been employed as material for illustrating the mystery 
of all ages — God manifest in flesh. In Asia, Buddha, 
Krishna and Zoroaster mean vastly more than solitary 
individuals; but a little close inspection of two seem- 
ingly divergent theories will demonstrate the inseparable 
unity of the universal with the individual idea. Osiris, 
Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ, are all titles expres- 
sive of spiritual dignity won only through victory over 
sense ; therefore these titles may have been given to 
many different personages in the history of the race, but 
they all mean one who has triumphed in spiritual con- 
flict over every enemy of righteousness, one in whom 
the divine light of the soul (the central sun around 
which all the planets of intellect and satellites of sense 
must obediently revolve in perfectly harmonious accord) 
is revealed in its true splendor, — made manifest through 
the veil of flesh, wdiich, from being the opaque veil of 
concealment hiding the soul, has become through a com- 
pletion of all necessary processes of initiation, a trans- 
parent window, a perfectly diaphanous medium for 
divine revealment. 

Now though Zoroaster in particular has puzzled chro- 
nologists, some of whom have made him live six thousand 
years before Christ, others in the time of Abraham, others 
again as a contemporary of Pythagoras, so that his lit- 
eral history seems all in the air, the enlightened Parsee 
explains that Zoroaster is a title, not a family surname, 
and therefore may have been borne in different ages and 
places by different individuals, each of whom attained to 
the perfect life of complete control over the lower self; 



LECTURE XXII. 479 

thus the historical difficulty is removed and all the dates 
assigned may be correct. 

An Oriental tradition concerning Buddha is to the 
effect that Vishnu, (the second person of the Brahmin 
trinity,) incarnates himself whenever the world is in 
special need of a deliverer ; this belief stripped of all en- 
cumbering fallacies signifies simply that whenever there 
is a great demand or imperative need for spiritual en- 
lightenment on earth, the need is met, the demand sup- 
plied ; thus the Indian prince Gautama, the hero of 
Edwin Arnold's " Light of Asia," was only one of many 
Buddhas, and while his period was about 550 B.C., the 
records of a Buddha's appearing many thousand years 
earlier need not be disputed. 

The Jews of old were always looking for the advent 
of a Messiah, and some of the orthodox to-day expect a 
personal deliverer soon to appear to restore all Israel to 
Palestine. Progressive Jewish thought, however, favors 
the impersonal view and makes the Messiah the entire 
people when redeemed from error, so soon as their mes- 
sianic mission among all nations is accomplished ; but 
as the lesser may always be contained in the greater, 
the personal may always be included in the universal ; 
thus the true idea of the achievement of a single indi- 
vidual prior to the glorification of an entire community 
and eventually of all mankind, is simply that there 
must always be some fruit on the Tree of Life ripened 
earlier than other specimens on the same tree. The 
personal Christ, as an exemplar, is a most reasonable 
and helpful expression of the Christ idea, for the pat- 
tern life of one who has already attained is the model 



480 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

for others who are striving to excel ; not simply a model 
in the sense of a pattern for imitation, but what is far 
more to the point, the embodied fulfillment in history of 
a state to which the entire race is ever aspiring, which 
state is thereby proved attainable by reason of its being 
already an accomplished fact. The Christ in history is 
a perfect human model, an ideal man, and is common 
in some degree to all countries and to all periods. 

Any conception of an imperfect Christ is a scholar's 
transitional conception caused by looking at the picture 
of the ideal man through the glasses of distorted history. 
Neither Strauss or Renan have caught anything like a 
full view of the Christ idea in history ; they have care- 
fully studied literature on its superficial side and have 
compiled interesting biographical narratives, but the 
work of both these authors is very incomplete. Many 
men have struck out from orthodoxy into religious lib- 
eralism through reading such books, which as contribu- 
tions to literature are histories of evidence, elaborate 
treatises on the validity or invalidity of human testi- 
mony. For the inner meaning and spiritual import of 
narratives designed to set forth esoteric verities such 
authors have no affections, and of this deeper meaning 
in what they discuss they know nothing; their minds 
are legal, judicial, external ; fair and honorable without 
doubt in intent, but prejudiced nevertheless ; for while 
they show themselves thoroughly determined to allow 
Christian evidence no favor denied to evidence on any 
other side, their positive prejudices against the Christian 
system often warp their judgment as it warps that of 
most skeptics who are only too delighted to find flaws 



LECTURE XXII. 481 

in a system they have grown to despise, doubtless by 
reason of the errors which have so long disfigured it. 
Such people desire to flog the character of Jesus over 
the shoulders of an ecclesiastical tyranny which has 
usurped the name whilst it has denied and forsaken the 
spirit of the Christ, and so long as this reactionary feel- 
ing continues, " free thought " will be in many instances 
a misapplied term, for no thought can possibly be free 
till the mind of the thinker is completely cured of the 
disease of prejudice from which so many otherwise can- 
did and able men are at present suffering grievously. 
Concerning the proper estimate of Christian testimony 
when placed side by side with other testimony and the 
actual tendency of orthodox works on Christian evidence 
to make infidels of reasoners, their position is impreg- 
nable, for it is indeed pitiful to witness the shameful 
special pleading of men who ought to know and do 
better when they- are endeavoring to bolster up a system 
to which they are attached, at the expense of every 
other system on earth. 

Unless it be among Unitarians by whom all religions 
are treated with an unusual degree of fairness, the 
divinity class in a college is the place where Christianity 
is proved true by processes of the most unwarrantable 
assumption. Christianity is a client to be defended at 
all risk, and every possible artifice by which mental in- 
genuity can possibly be pressed into the service is 
strained to its utmost to defend the one system which 
is alone adjudged defensible, while the very vilest ex- 
crescences of other systems are taken as representative of 
the systems of which they are but disfiguring accretions. 



482 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

On Friday, January 18th, 1889, in the First Congre- 
gational Church of San Francisco, Mr. Moody, during 
his Bible Reading, had a kind word to say for almost 
everybody and manifested royal liberality of soul when 
speaking of the Chinese ; but when he alluded to Bud- 
dhism he was guilty of the most egregious though doubt- 
less guiltless misrepresentation; he no doubt believed 
what he said, but he spoke untruly, for Buddhism no 
more teaches the inferiority of woman than Christianity 
does, and while no doubt one can find utterances of 
Buddhists and many more of Brahmins and Moham- 
medans speaking contemptuously of woman, is Mr. 
Moody so blind to the teaching of the present day as 
not to know that Paul's Epistles are the armory from 
which the opponents not only of female suffrage but of 
female pastors often draw their ammunition? Jesus 
and Paul did not always teach alike. Jesus did work 
to emancipate women from Oriental slavery as far as his 
benign influence extended, but Paul was never fully 
liberated himself, and on Paul more than on Jesus is 
the edifice of Christian sacerdotalism made to rest; and 
of this system Mr. Moody is in great measure a repre- 
sentative, advocate and exponent, even though his pro- 
nounced Protestantism leads him to object to the word 
sacerdos (a priest). Now Buddha never taught woman's 
inferiority to man, while the absurd dogma of her having 
to be re-embodied as a male ere she could enjoy immor- 
tality, is a most ignorant misconception of a prominent 
feature of a certain school of Oriental philosophy not 
unknown in Europe and America, which teaches that 
the human soul must be successively embodied in male 



LECTtfRE XXII. 483 

and female forms to gain all possible earthly experience ; 
those who favor this doctrine believe necessarily in the 
absolute equality of the sexes, and maintain that man 
and woman differ only in external organism, for if 
woman ever needs re-embodiment as man, man equally 
needs re-embodiment as woman. We have simply in- 
troduced this criticism of Mr. Moody's misrepresentation 
of Buddhism as an example of the frightfully pernicious 
course pursued by Christian apologists in general, and 
if criticism does no more than call attention to this 
manifest and shameful unfairness on the part of alleged 
disciples of an impartial Christ, it will certainly not 
be offered in vain. We must now very briefly point 
out where a misconception of the Christ often prevents 
an intelligent re-conception, and that it often does so 
is patent to all^discerning readers of current literature. 
The life of Jesus is a representative, an ideal life, no 
matter whether historical or otherwise ; the actions of 
the Christ are recorded as examples of universal god- 
liness, therefore it is but right and reasonable to submit 
them to the most searching scrutiny. 

On a few occasions Jesus is said by critics to have 
lost his temper and allowed uncontrolled passion to dis- 
figure his conduct. Objectors to his life being a model 
life dwell particularly on his cursing a barren fig-tree 
and driving money changers out of the temple. Now 
when these acts are misinterpreted as ventings of per- 
sonal spleen, or displays of vulgar indignation against 
objects and individuals which have disappointed, an- 
noyed or injured him, they certainly are serious blem- 
ishes and prove him to have been decidedly imperfect ; 



484 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

but when these same exhibitions of manifestly righteous 
indignation are taken for what they really are, protests 
against hypocrisy and injustice, they enhance the grand- 
eur of a character they would otherwise disfigure. 

The Palestinian fig-tree has no right to be covered 
with leaves until it is bearing fruit, for its striking pe- 
culiarity is that when covered with leaves, travelers 
seeing it from a distance know they will find fruit 
thereon. A tree covered with leaves but destitute of 
fruit would lead tired, hungry, thirsty travelers out of 
their way. It is then an expressive symbol of hypo- 
crites and of institutions which promise much and per- 
form nothing. To blast it is to defeat the schemes of 
pretenders ; its removal is a public benefaction. Now 
an important part of the work of a genuine reformer is 
to abate nuisances and put down all deceit and pretence 
to the utmost of his ability. In the temple courts at 
Jerusalem, oxen, sheep and birds were sold for sacri- 
fice. Three times a year when crowds of country folk 
came to the temple, an immense trade was done by the 
traders in the outer courts of the temple. While they 
were honest they were in no sense a nuisance, but when 
through their unprincipled extortion they made the 
house of God " a den of thieves," it was the plain duty 
of a lover of justice and humanity to drive them out. 
But why did a company of men allow themselves to be 
driven out by one? Why did they not take a whip 
and drive him out who dared to interfere with them ? 
Surely the answer is not far to seek. Jesus driving out 
usurers, extortioners, with a whip of small cords, is a 
forcible picture of human conscience, aroused by burn- 



LECTURE XXII. 485 

ing words of manly protest against iniquity — conscience 
being itself the whip which forces from the temple courts 
the self-convicted usurer. 

Jesus spoke to the consciences of these men, he awoke 
within them a burning sense of shame at their own 
wrong doing, and maybe threw the tables down in his 
earnest protest against wrong, while the humiliated sin- 
ners could not resist the force of his sublime appeal. 
He was not injured, but as the friend of the people 
standing for the public good, he resolutely (regardless 
of any possible risk to himself) put himself between the 
people and their oppressors. 

Jesus, it is frequently said, was the friend of the poor 
in the wrong way, because he pronounced poverty blessed. 
His teachings on this subject were, however, only to 
the effect that ill-gotten gain is accursed, while honest 
poverty is no disgrace. Unlike incendiary atheistic an- 
archists, he would effect reform, not by denouncing all 
capitalists as devils, but by moving the hearts and minds 
of rich and poor alike to reconstruct society on a basis 
of justice. Anarchists and nihilists have wrongs to right, 
grievances to redress, it is true, but incendiary speeches 
and writings can never bring about reform. Rich and 
poor alike are amenable to justice, and while the wage 
system is not the ultimate, it cannot be abolished by 
violent means, though it will be outgrown through 
preaching and practice pertaining to the new era. 

Jesus, as a co-operator at war with competition in all 
its phases, is the central figure in the new theology. 
The received human Christ has a special message to 
discontented workingmen, and can find his way to the 



486 STUDIES IN THEOSOPHY. 

hearts and minds of the laboring classes at the east end 
of London. We read with surprise the words of Bishop 
Potter concerning rivalry and competition, as published 
in Scribner's Magazine, Feb. 1889, in an article on " The 
Competitive Element in Modern Life." That such ut- 
terances should proceed from a Christian bishop proves 
afresh that a re-conception of Christ is indeed a neces- 
sity to-day. Competition is infernal ; rivalry is diaboli- 
cal ; and a man or woman must be short-sighted indeed 
who does not see that lawful ambition to excel is not 
desire to get ahead of some one else, but to contribute 
one's proper share to the success of a grand perform- 
ance on the stage of life, in which every part needs to 
be well sustained by thoroughly competent actors. A 
theatrical simile may serve to illustrate the truth we 
seek to convey. A grand opera needs that every part 
be admirably taken. The star system is an offence 
against propriety and shocks all sensitive lovers of good 
music, for to have one part taken superbly by one per- 
son and all other parts takeu badly, or at least indif- 
ferently, mutilates the composer's idea and effectually 
spoils the performance. In an ideal opera troupe all 
are stars, all excel, all shine, not as rivals, but in galax- 
ies necessary to the completeness of the scene. If one 
is honored, all share the honor ; if one is deficient, the 
effect of everybody's work is marred. So in human life : 
no one can rise by another's fall, and none need fall 
through another's rise. Co-operation is the key-note of 
social order, while the ambition to excel nobly is the 
antithesis of rivalry. 



APPENDIX. 



REVIEW OF "THE LIGHT OF EGYPT; OR, THE SCIENCE 
OF THE SOUL AND THE STARS." 

The most singular work recently published by the Religio- Philosoph- 
ical Publishing House, Chicago, bearing the above title, is deserving of 
more than a cursory glance. Though it is by no means a thoroughly 
theosophical work, and has been severely criticised in the Path and 
other periodicals, yet it contains much interesting and useful informa- 
tion. Its authorship is curiously anonymous, as a glance at its title-page 
will show. We ask, " Who is l X ' f " and echo answers, " Who ? " 
A quotation from Rev. chaps, i. and v. constitutes the prelude to the 
work : " Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which 
are, and the things which shall be hereafter ; The Mystery of the 
Seven Stars which thou sawest in my right hand." Is the reader to 
infer that the mysterious author, whose name is represented by a sign, 
is gifted like unto John the Evangelist or Swedenborg ? The work is 
dedicated ' ' To the Budding Spirituality of the Occident and the Rising 
Genius of the Western Race." That our readers may be informed at 
the outset of this review of the ground plan of the work we place before 
them its preface, which is as follows : — 

"The reasons which have induced the writer to undertake the 
responsibility of presenting a purely occult treatise to the world, are 
briefly these : — 

"For nearly twenty years the writer has been deeply engaged in- 
vestigating the hidden realms of occult force, and, as the results of 
these mystical labors were considered to be of great value and real 
worth by a few personal acquaintances who were also seeking light, 
he was finally induced to condense, as far as practicable, the general 



488 APPENDIX. 

results of these researches into a series of lessons for private occult 
study. This idea was ultimately carried out and put into external 
form; the whole, when completed, presenting the dual aspects of 
occult lore as seen and realized in the soul and the stars, correspond- 
ing to the microcosm and the macrocosm of ancient Egypt and Chal- 
dea, and thus giving a brief epitome of Hermetic philosophy. 1 

" Having served their original purpose, external circumstances have 
compelled their preparation for a much wider circle of minds. The 
chief reason urging to this step was the strenuous efforts now being 
systematically put forth to poison the budding spirituality of the wes- 
tern mind, and to fasten upon its mediumistic mentality the subtle, 
delusive dogmas of Karma and Re- incarnation, as taught by the sacer- 
dotalisms of the decaying Orient. 

"From the foregoing statement it will be seen that this work is 
issued with a definite purpose, namely, to explain the true spiritual 
connection between God and man, the soul and the stars, and to 
reveal the real truths of both Karma and Re- incarnation as they actu- 
ally exist in nature, stripped of all priestly interpretation. The definite 
statements made in regard to these subjects are absolute facts, in so 
far as embodied man can understand them through the symbolism of 
human language, and the writer defies contradiction by any living 
authority who possesses the spiritual right to say, * I know. ' 

1 ' During these twenty years of personal intercourse with the exalted 
minds of those who constitute the brethren of light, the fact was re- 
vealed that long ages ago the Orient had lost the use of the true spirit- 
ual compass of the soul, as well as the real secrets of its own Theosophy. 
As a race, they have been, and still are, traveling the descending 
arc of this racial cycle, whereas the western race have been slowly 
working their way upward through matter upon the ascending arc. 
Already it has reached the equator of its mental and spiritual develop- 
ment. Therefore the writer does not fear the ultimate results of the 
occult knowledge put forth in the present work, during this, the great 
mental crisis of the race. 

1 ' Having explained the actual causes which impelled the writer to 
undertake this responsibility, it is also necessary to state most em- 
phatically, that he does not wish to convey the impression to the 
reader's mind that the Orient is destitute of spiritual truth. On the 

1 The term Hermetic is here used in its true sense of sealed or secret. 



APPENDIX. 489 

contrary, every genuine student of occult lore is justly proud of the 
snow-white locks of old Hindustan, and thoroughly appreciates the 
wondrous stores of mystical knowledge concealed within the astral 
vortices of the Hindu branch of the Aryan race. In India, probably 
more than in any other country, are the latent forces and mysteries of 
nature the subject of thought and study. But alas ! it is not a pro- 
gressive study. The descending arc of this spiritual force keeps them 
bound to the dogmas, traditions, and externalisms of the decaying 
past, whose real secrets they cannot now penetrate. The ever-living 
truths concealed beneath the symbols in the astral light are hidden 
from this view by the setting sun of their spiritual cycle. Therefore, 
the writer only desires to impress upon the reader's candid mind the 
fact that his earnest effort is to expose that particular section of 
Buddhistic Theosophy (esoteric, so called) that would fasten the 
cramping shackles of theological dogma upon the rising genius of the 
western race. It is the delusive Oriental systems against which his 
efforts are directed, and not the race nor the mediumistic individuals 
who uphold and support them ; for ' omnia vincit Veritas ' is the life 
motto of The Author." 

We are entirely unacquainted with the particular species of Bud- 
dhistic Theosophy referred to. The Theosophical Society bears no 
resemblance to the system characterized in the above preface. Why 
cannot writers put forward their honest convictions without insinu- 
ating evil of others ? Evil speaking is characteristic of no true adept. 
4 ' Truth conquers all things ' ' indeed, and whoever adopts this motto 
for his own should remember the precept, " Overcome evil with good," 
or he may soon find himself a u mediumistic individual " controlled 
by " cramping shackles " of prejudice and misconception. 

The introduction to Part I. inculcates many good ideas. The dia- 
gram which is its frontispiece is an ambitious and ingenious attempt to 
represent "the realm of spirit." The background is black; in the 
centre is a seven-pointed star, the points of which represent the seven 
prismatic hues, — red, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, and orange. 
The central sphere or body of the star contains a central eye, enclosed 
within a triangle, the sides of which are marked with the words Light, 
Love, Live. Surrounding this central figure are seven spheres, desig- 
nated as follows, according to the names of the seven representative 
angels : — 



490 



APPENDIX. 



^ — -^ 






/ Ki?i(rcIo77i \ 

/ ^ • \ 






/^^~~ "%] Michael 


K 


- ^X 


/ Victory \ / 
/ \\ Pow&r II 


' i 


beauty \ 


Samuel N^P^xf 


^ 


fe^ 


V Strength- I ^ /VT^\ 




Z#F£ ; / 




V 


>^^-x 


/ Splendour \ J^v <s> V* r\ 


31^ 
/ 


FoundallorS 


Raphael ■ vL Syy\ % 

{ f J r / /5\\ ^ 

V Intelligence \IS^\/ g- \^-- 


1 


GaJiriel 

lecunrfencY J 


^^ — -^T Mercy \/ . ofe 


\ 
^0 


\\ 3- \/ 


ZaoAarial Cast 


S7<?/' 


■ ;.) 


\ Greatness A Patim 


2^ 


'; 7 ■•'.' «"•,'«'' 


^^^ \^-~ 


— 


x 



At the foot of the figure are the following quotations from the 1st 
chapter of the 4th Gospel : " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God." Though the seven 
angels are distinctly Kabalistic and the quotation Grseco- Christian, there 
is nothing necessarily incongruous in this grouping. As the Egyptians 
doubtless originally conveyed instruction in the mysteries first to the 
Hebrews and then to the Greeks, Christianity undeniably perpetuated 
many Egyptian secrets, which it veiled from the multitude in the sym- 
bols of the church and the ritual of secret orders. 

Section 1, Chapter I., dealing with Involution, supplies us with some 
extraordinary theories. In our judgment the words "unconscious" 
and "motionless" cannot reasonably be applied to "Divinity" ; but 
of course there is an unpenetrated, though not necessarily impene- 



APPENDIX. 491 

trable life, which not even the wisest has fully analyzed. Would it 
not be advisable, in view of the "great mystery," to be cautious in 
the use of negative adjectives ? Is it not extremely probable that what 
seems to us unconscious or motionless is more conscious and more 
active than aught we comprehend ? and do not scientific revelations 
in these days support this supposition ? " The whole universe is filled 
with the Deific presence of God" is, no doubt, an accurate statement, 
and doubtless it is also true that " the universe is boundless and unlim- 
ited, — a circle whose circumference is everywhere and whose centre is 
nowhere"; and also that u the universe is dual, and consists of the 
manifest and the non- manifest." But the language is in one instance 
tautological, and in neither case easy to be comprehended. We should 
say the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere were we 
speaking of infinity, but perhaps our definition is no clearer than the 
one we have quoted ; however, it seems clearer to us, and may seem 
so to some at least of our readers, therefore we append it. The ex- 
planation of the diagram is simple, and we give it in the words of the 
book, as we deem it well worthy of consideration : " The central triad 
represents Love, Wisdom, and Crown" (the Hebrew word Jcepher sig- 
nifies truth — in this connection, though, crown is the literal transla- 
tion); " the seven-pointed star the seven rays issuing therefrom; the 
seven circles show the seven angelic worlds formed from the seven 
active principles ; the names Cassiel, Michael, etc. , are Kabalistical 
ones for the Sephiroth, while the words above and below show their 
attributes." 

In Chapter II. matter is described as "the polar opposite of mani- 
fested spirit," the reaction of spiritual action. Evolution is cor- 
rectly defined from the Latin e and voluo (to unroll). " Man, in his 
physical body, is a perfect epitome of the planet upon which he lives, 
while the celestial worlds find their perfect expression in his soul." 
" Every known ; thing' is dependent upon a something else, and all 
things, therefore, eventually dependent upon each other." Such 
passages teach very good Theosophy, and whoever may be their au- 
thor, the reader cannot but be instructed by their perusal. " Evolu- 
tion is dependent upon involution " is another great truth. 

As in the Buddhistic idea of man there are seven " principles," so 
is it with the Kabalistic. The definitions are as follows : — 

1. The Spiritual ; creative. The Word. 

2. The Astral ; realm of design. The Idea. 



492 APPENDIX. 

3. The Aerial ; realm of force. Power. 

4. The Mineral ; phenomenal. Justice. 

5. The Vegetable ; life. Beauty. 

6. The Animal ; consciousness. Love. 

7. The Human ; mind. Glory. 

The author does not claim any originality for these views, but declares 
they have been known to Hermetic initiates for at least a thousand 
generations. Hermes Trismegistus, the great Prince of Egyptian 
hierophants, distinctly declared, "The Universe is from God, and 
man from the Universe." If the first two chapters of Genesis are 
studied in the light of the Kabala, the Bible student will find no con- 
flict in the two accounts of creation, as the first refers to the spiritual 
from God, the second to the physical from the u sons of God." 

Concerning sex in spirit the author contends that the male and 
female forms are always distinctly preserved. This doctrine is stead- 
fastly maintained in Mrs. Richmond's " Soul and its Embodiments," 
though that work teaches quite differently on the question of repeated 
embodiments. " Twin souls are related to each other primarily as 
brother and sister, and finally as man and wife." Many very good 
ideas on marriage are set forth, and asceticism is frowned upon, ex- 
cept in cases where physical continence is the result of inward purity. 
All metaphysicians are bound to agree that when impure desires are 
permitted to run riot in the mind, physical abstinence from indul- 
gence is no safeguard from the attacks of evil influences. On the 
question of celibacy the author says, " Upon one plane it becomes a 
delusion and a snare ; but upon a higher plane it contains all the ele- 
ments of a glorious truth." This statement we know to be true. 
The affections must be spiritualized before any outward expression 
of purity can be genuine ; and as our secret thoughts are magnets, 
attracting unseen influences, it is impossible to lay too much stress on 
purity of thought. Of this we may rest assured : no hypocritical sanc- 
timony or slavish prudery can protect any one against unseen dan- 
gers, however much it may throw a fictitious halo around an earthly 
reputation. 

Section 2 opens with a dissertation on u Incarnation and Re- incarna- 
tion." While the author may be correct in some of his comments 
upon ancient sacerdotal systems, his style is exaggerated, and little 
that he has to say on this subject can be called luminous. Evidently 
he is prejudiced against " re- incarnation," and there is nothing like 



APPENDIX. 493 

prejudice for concealing truth. Many of the assertions in this section 
misrepresent the doctrine; the "Inversive Brethren,' ' against whom 
we are warned, have probably inspired much that is here written ; and 
then with cunning subtlety warned readers against others. The argu- 
ments against u re- incarnation" are often ludicrously inconsistent. 
They have a value, however, in showing how very little can really be 
advanced in opposition to the doctrine. Do not let us be understood 
to say that none of the views put forward concerning the spirit- 
ual world and the transit of the soul from planet to planet are correct ; 
we believe many of them to be true, but we do say most emphatically, 
that the arguments amount to nothing in disproof of the idea he is 
combating. On the contrary, his assertion proves, rather than dis- 
proves, what he seeks to condemn. 

Notwithstanding a perfect diatribe against u re- incarnation" in gen- 
eral, in three particular classes of instances it is said to take place : 
1st. Still-born children and those not allowed to come to maturity. 
2d. " Natural born idiots." 3d. "Messianic incarnation by exalted 
souls, for the special purpose of enlightening the race." No doubt 
these three classes are represented in "re- incarnation," but are they 
the only ones ? 

"The Hermetic Constitution of Man" makes a very interesting 
chapter. The seven divisions, counting upward, are : A, The physical 
form ; B, an electro- vital body ; C, an astral form ; D, the animal 
soul ; E, the spiritual body ; E, the divine soul ; G, the pure spirit en- 
tity itself ; the divine Ego, which is the divine atom of life, the central 
spiritual sun of the microcosm. The author proceeds to defend his 
system at the expense of a supposed "Buddhism" which is his pet 
aversion. If the theories stated were not connected with abuse of this 
curious caricature of Buddhism, they would be very readable ; but this 
constant attacking something the author lamentably misconceives, is 
belittling to the work and irritating to the non-partisan searcher for 
truth. Could "The Light of Egypt" be re- written with the obnoxious 
elements expurgated, it would be a valuable theosophical work for ref- 
erence ; as it is, it engenders and fosters much needless hostility. 

The chapter on "Karma " is often amusing by reason of the singu- 
lar manner in which it confounds " Karma'''' with the astral light. 

We find, despite this extreme paucity of reason displayed in con- 
nection with a prejudged theme, much interesting theorizing on the 
successive races of mankind, which, according to our author, were : 



494 APPENDIX. 

1st, gold ; 2d, silver ; 3d, copper. Amid a mass of rubbish and mis- 
statement we pick up a beautiful gem of thought: u Do good, not for 
the sake of gaining good thereby, but for the sake of simple goodness 
and virtue alone." If '''•Karma cannot be interfered with," it can be 
outlived and outgrown ; the law cannot be changed ; but our life to-day- 
can atone for our past follies. This all Theosophy teaches, though 
possibly some individual Theosophists are not very happy in some of 
their expressions on the subject. 

What is said on ' ' Mediumship, its Nature and Mysteries" (chap. 
IV., sec. 2), contains a good share of sound metaphysical teaching. 
This chapter could and may be profitably studied by all Spiritualists, 
and those seeking information concerning Spiritualism. Section 3 treats 
upon "The Soul, its Nature and Attributes," headed with this sen- 
tence from Plutarch : "The divine spirit is to the soul what the soul is 
to the body ; " and ends with another great axiom, " Know the Divinity 
within you, that you may know the Divine One, of which your soul is 
a ray. " " Every soul is immortal by virtue of its community with God. ' ' 
Albertus Magnus heads a chapter on "Mortality and Immortality," 
decidedly a fine production. Chapter III., " The Dark Satellite," will 
interest lovers of the uncanny. Chapter IV., "The Triumph of the 
Soul, Adeptship," contains salutary advice, though here again the 
advancing student must learn to select the wheat from the chaff, and 
not mistake acrimony for wisdom. Another septenary table is here 
given, denning the seven senses. 

Physical senses. Soul senses. 

1. Touch. 1. The power to psychometrize. 

2. Taste. 2. The power to absorb and enjoy the finer 

essence of the life wave. 

3. Smell. 3. The power to distinguish the spiritual aro- 

mas of nature. 

4. Sight. 4. The lucid state, called clairvoyance. 

5. Hearing. 5. The ability to perceive ethereal vibrations, 

called clairaudience. 

6. Intuition. 6. The capacity to receive true inspiration. 

7. Thought transference. 7. The power to converse with spiritual beings 

at will. 

Part II. of this singular book is on " The Science of the Stars," and 
will well repay perusal. It certainly is a very fair statement of astrol- 



APPENDIX. 495 

ogy, and not calculated to lead to pessimistic conclusions, as the author 
allows a great deal of liberty to man to shape his own destiny. The 
frontispiece to this second part is the figure of a man standing in the 
center of the zodiacal serpent. " Astrology per se is a combination of 
two sciences, viz., astronomy and correspondences. These two are 
related to each other as hand and glove ; the former deals with suns, 
moons, planets, and stars, and strictly confines its researches to a 
knowledge of their size, distance, and motion ; while the latter deals 
with the spiritual and physical influences of the same bodies, — first 
upon each other, then upon the earth, and lastly upon the organism of 
man. Astronomy is the external lifeless glove ; correspondences the 
living hand within." Exactly what we have said many times in our 
public lectures and private instructions, and for saying which have 
been accused of indorsing effete superstition ; but truth will triumph, 
and the ignorant externalists who deny in toto the ancient wisdom of 
Chaldea and other favored climes in the long ago, must, in this age of 
re-awakening intelligence, come ere long to see things as they really 
are and not as they blindly supposed them to be. Astrology, rightly 
understood, is the spiritual side of astronomy ; these sciences always 
went together with the learned of old ; ignorance has divorced them, 
knowledge will re-unite them. The language in the introduction to 
this second part often rises to the sublime, and shows the touch of a 
finished scholar. 

The writer heads the first chapter of his treatise with these words : 
" So God created man hi his own image, in his own image created he 
him." Students of spiritual and mental healing will find much to 
think about if they ponder upon such statements as this : — 

" When trouble or anxiety of mind crosses our path, the first place 
where we feel its influence is that part of the body called the pit of the 
stomach. This sensitive region is within the solar plexus. How many 
times do forebodings of coming trouble impress themselves upon this 
delicate center. ... The solar plexus is our grand contracting point 
whereby we are placed en rapport with all things external to us ; there- 
fore we can see that the true psychical basis of physical health rests 
with this center; for it is taken for granted that man is by lawful 
superiority the natural ruler of those powers which live, move, and 
have their being within his own magnetic dominions. To possess true 
psychological power which shall be subject to the imperial will, and 
thus be able to assume perfect control of the odyllic sphere ; to con- 



496 APPENDIX. 

>*^ 

centrate all our loyal forces, at a moment's notice, upon any particu- 
lar section of this magnetic kingdom, and thus instantly subdue any 
revolt of the reactionary powers, — it is absolutely imperative that our 
physical bodies be kept free and uncramped by any article of dress 
which restrains us from developing our true natural forms." 

Some very wise words are to be found on page 176 concerning 
colors, all of which are pronounced good in their significance, though 
when mediumistic persons see dull colors around persons the dullness 
of the tint denotes impurity, or at least a lamentable deficiency of 
spirituality. Colors without doubt have a very powerful influence on 
all sensitive persons. White is always congenial to the innocent and 
pure-minded, as it denotes both simplicity and entirety. Red, when 
bright and clear, denotes pure love and mental power, but when dull 
and dirty-looking signifies unhallowed animality and perverted strength. 
Blue means fidelity, truth, constancy. Yellow signifies wisdom, knowl- 
edge, understanding. Green is indicative of delight in externals ; but 
each and every color, when seen in the aura surrounding a person or 
object, indicates the purity or impurity represented by the brightness 
or dullness of the color seen. 

Concerning Christian Science, the following remarks are made on 
page 178 : " It is utterly impossible for antagonistic natures to benefit 
each other mentally, no matter how good or pure they, as individuals, 
may be. ' ' This no doubt is true, so far as magnetic influences and 
mind- cure are concerned ; but when true Spiritual (or Christian) Science 
is understood, an immense difference will be at once perceived, as the 
truly scientific healer is a teacher who appeals to the innate divinity 
of a patient, and by arousing his own spiritual nature enables him to 
rectify any derangement in his own organism. At the same time we 
frankly admit that really beneficial results are rarely obtained when 
no sympathy is felt between healer and patient. In our chapter on 
" Electric Christian Theosophy," containing our review of Marie Co- 
relli's " Romance of Two Worlds," and elsewhere in this volume, we 
have expressed our views fully on this matter ; let us now recommend as 
a subject of special reflection for all healers and teachers the following 
Scripture texts, laying peculiar stress on the pronouns : " All that the 
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will 
in no wise cast out." "In my Father's house are many mansions. 
/ go to prepare a place for you. Where I am there ye may be also." 
" Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name there 



APPENDIX. 497 

am / in the midst of them.' 1 '' Not Calvinism, with its hideous blas- 
phemies against the universal action of Divine Love and Wisdom 
which it abominably travesties, but a spiritual law of sympathetic 
attraction is set forth in these luminous and beautiful lessons from 
the Gospel. As each finds his own sphere and does his own work, 
minding his own business, not intermeddling with his neighbor's 
affairs, society will develop into a delightful co-operative common- 
wealth, and the demons of unjust and spiteful rivalry and competition 
will have left the earth to appear on it no more forever. 

Chapter II. is headed with ' 'And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest 
any one finding him should kill him." In the midst of a good deal that 
appears to us of rather doubtful authenticity, we pick up many pearls. 
Saturn is said to produce a reserved and cold nature, which corre- 
sponds to the blue ray of the spectrum. Jupiter is described as con- 
ducive to joviality, generosity, and benevolence, and corresponds to 
the purple or indigo ray. 31ars generates a fierce, intrepid force and 
corresponds to the red ray. The Sun ''radiates the principle which 
is at once life-giving and dignified. It is affable but majestic, proud 
but gracious, and blends firmness with kindness, ambition with pater- 
nal consideration, combativeness with self-respect, and liberality with 
discretion." It corresponds to the orange ray. The above is a good 
general outline of a solar which really means spiritually governed and 
well balanced character. Venus is described as loving, pliant, and 
receptive, but capable of strong attachment for a totally different 
type ; hence the mythological friendship between Mars and Venus. 
Venus corresponds to the yellow ray. Mercury is the volatile and 
commercial planet, bright and witty, but full of cunning devices; 
it corresponds to the violet ray. The Moon is wisely dismissed 
without any definite statement concerning its attributes. As it can 
be only an astral reflex of the earth it corresponds to the green ray. 
Concerning Uranus and Neptune the following is said: "After the 
seven notes of the magnetic gamut have been sounded, the next note 
must be upon a higher octave and form a repetition of the first." 
The following statement is of interest: " There is still another planet 
more remote from our Sun than Neptune, but its action on our organ- 
ism at present is nil, because the present races have not yet attained 
to that special state of spiritual and mental development that will 
admit of its influence becoming manifest. Neither will such a planet 
become visible to this earth's inhabitants until there is sufficient 



498 APPENDIX. 

mental force of the requisite grade to enable its existence to become 
apparent." 

A fine astro-phrenological chart prefaces Chapter III. It explains 
that the Sun and Jupiter are related to man's moral sentiments; 
Saturn to the selfish propensities ; Yenus and the Moon to the domes- 
tic qualities and semi- intellectual sentiments ; Mars to perception. 
Phrenology is accepted with considerable caution and modification, 
though its general teachings are undisputed. Some very curious and 
elaborate explanations of these statements are given in clear, per- 
spicuous language ; among them we find the singular declaration that 
sorrow is symbolized by a square or angle of 90° ; harmony by a tri- 
angle, or angle of 120°. Chapter IV. deals with the Four Triplicities, 
each of which contains three zodiacal signs. The fiery trigon em- 
braces Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius ; the earthly trigon, Taurus, Virgo, 
and Capricornus ; the airy trigon, Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius ; the 
watery trigon, Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. On page 201 we read : " The 
four ancient elements have been symbolized from time immemorial as 
the Man, the Bull, the Eagle, and the Lion."" In Christian art these 
are the symbols of the four evangelists, which fact alone, were others 
wanting, should be enough to convince the thoughtful student that 
Christianity, both in its history and its art, is not by any means a 
solitary revelation. Chapter IV. ends with a beautiful interpreta- 
tion of Eden. On page 203 is a chart entitled, "The Grand Astro- 
logical Key of Alchemical Science." In its center is a blazing golden 
Sun, radiating four sets of rays respectively denominated Sylphs. Un- 
dines, Gnomes, and Salamanders. These, according to Kabalistic sci- 
ence, signify the four great groups of human faculties, — the spiritual 
(salamanders), the imaginative (sylphs), the intellectual (undines), and 
the animal (gnomes). 

Concerning nativities, we are told that the longest livers are usually 
born in March, April, or May ; while the bulk of the short-lived are 
born in August, September, or October ; but this is only true in a very 
general way. Alchemy is treated spiritually and sensibly, and proper 
warning is given to all in search of earthly gold by means of desecrated 
occult energies. The metals have their planetary rulers designated. 

The Astro-Kabalistical Planisphere of the Signs and Constellations 
of the Zodiac, facing page 210, assigns the twelve tribes of Israel to 
the following signs and months : — 

Aries, March, Benjamin ; Taunts, April, Issachar ; Gemini, May, 



APPENDIX. 499 

Simeon-Levi ; Cancer, June, Zebulon ; Leo, July, Judah ; Virgo, Au- 
gust, Asshur ; Libra, September, Dan ; Scorpio, October, Gad ; Sagit- 
tarius, November, Joseph ; Capricornus, December, Naphtali ; Aqua- 
rius, January, Eeuben ; Pisces, February, Ephraim and Manasseh. 
Thus fourteen names are given to the tribes, as Gemini and Pisces are 
dual signs, and thus express duality in their correspondences. 

The symbolical aspects of the twelve signs are very interestingly 
amplified as the work proceeds. Aries represents sacrifice ; astronom- 
ically it is the lamb slain upon the equinoctial cross. Kabalistically it 
refers to the head and brains of the grand man of the Cosmos. Upon 
the intellectual plane it signifies the martial or contending spirit. On 
the physical plane it gives the native a spare but strong body, medium 
height, long face and neck, and powerful chest. People who are domi- 
nated by this sign are usually courageous and ambitious, but irritable. 
Taunts symbolizes all the procreative forces in nature ; it is the sign 
of husbandry. Kabalistically it represents the ears, neck, and throat 
of the grand man, and is considered a silent, patient, listening sign. 
Upon the intellectual plane Taurus governs carefulness and self-reli- 
ance, industry and application ; but persons of Taurus' nature are 
fiery as an infuriated bull when greatly aroused, though ordinarily 
reserved and equable. Gemini symbolizes unity. The bright stars, 
Castor and Pollux, have also been regarded as typical of twin souls. 
Kabalistically this sign represents the hands and arms of the grand 
man, and therefore governs executive and mechanical ability. Upon 
the intellectual plane Gemini denotes the union of reason with intui- 
tion ; those under it are of nervous temperament and highly magnetic ; 
physically they are tall and erect. Cancer symbolizes tenacity to life. 
Kabalistically it signifies the vital organs of the grand man ; it governs 
inspiration and respiration. Upon the intellectual plane it denotes con- 
siderable force, but those dominated by it are usually timid and retir- 
ing ; but their passivity renders them highly mediumistic ; physically 
they are apt to be small and fair. Leo symbolizes indomitable courage, 
linked with extraordinary strength. Kabalistically it represents the 
heart of the grand man ; those born under its influence are generally 
possessed of fine constitution and great recuperative power. On the 
intellectual plane it works sympathetically, making the native gener- 
ous in the extreme ; physically, this sign is expressed in a large, fair 
person, broad-shouldered, with golden hair. Virgo symbolizes chas- 
tity. Kabalistically it is the solar plexus of the grand man, and there- 



500 APPENDIX. 

fore represents the assimilating and distributing functions of the human 
body. Intellectually it denotes the fulfillment of hopes. Those recep- 
tive to its influx are characterized by love of reflection and study, 
consequently they become repositories of knowledge. Their chief 
attributes are hope and contentment ; they are therefore well fitted 
for close application to scientific pursuits. Such persons possess large 
brain power, and make excellent statesmen. Physically they are 
usually of medium stature, very compact, and of dark complexion. 
As orators they are fluent, practical, and entertaining. Libra typifies 
justice. Kabalistically it stands for the reins and loins of the grand 
man, and therefore represents the central storehouse of reproductive 
ability. Upon the universal chart it denotes equilibrium as expressed 
in the perfect man. Intellectually it rules external perception, bal- 
anced by intuition, which union gives foresight ; but those born under 
it rarely become practical interpreters of their theories : they possess 
a finely balanced mental and magnetic organism, but are seldom ele- 
vated to very prominent positions. Physically they are usually tall 
and slender, perfectly proportioned, with brown hair, bright blue eyes, 
and clear complexion ; sometimes, however, Libra produces very dark 
hair. Scorpio symbolizes death and deceit. Kabalistically it typifies 
the procreative system, which by the ancients was always typical of 
divine power when employed spiritually, but of sensuality and loss of 
innocence when treated of as carnal emblems. On the intellectual 
plane Scorpio signifies the generation of ideas ; persons governed by 
it are of active, evolutionary minds ;- their brains literally crammed 
with inventive imagery. They possess keen perception, clear intuition, 
and powerful will. Physically such persons are strong and inclined to 
corpulence. Sagittarius symbolizes retribution, and also a hunter. 
Kabalistically it signifies the thighs of the grand man — the muscular 
foundation of the seat of locomotion ; it is emblematic of stability. 
Intellectually it stands for organizing power. Persons ruled by this 
are loyal, patriotic, and law-abiding ; they are also generous and free, 
charitable and kind to the distressed. They possess strong conserva- 
tive qualities, and their characteristics are self-control and ability to 
rule others. Physically they are well-formed and, indeed, handsome. 
Capricorn typifies sin and the offerings made to put away sin. In all 
ancient mythologies the Saviour of mankind was born at midnight, 
directly the sun enters this sign. The young child laid in the stable 
in Christian commemorations, according to a far older system denotes 



APPENDIX. 501 

the birth of the year in midwinter. Kabalistically this sign represents 
the knees of the grand man ; it is emblematic of servitude. Intellectu- 
ally it denotes a scheming temperament, very little developed spiritu- 
ally ; its natives are intensely quick to see the weak points in others, 
and turn them to their own advantage. Physically they are, as a rule, 
of medium stature, not very well proportioned, and though energetic 
in their own interest, indolent in the employ of others. Aquarius 
symbolizes judgment. Kabalistically it stands for the legs of the 
grand man ; it emblematizes the migratory forces of the body. Intel- 
lectually it represents popular science : those governed by it, though 
brilliantly intellectual, are confined to the evidence of their senses, 
and cannot peer at all into the realm of such truth as must be dis- 
cerned spiritually. Physically this sign gives a decidedly prepossess- 
ing appearance, coup]ed with an amiable and refined disposition. 
Pisces signifies a flood. Kabalistically it represents the feet of the 
grand man ; it is emblematic of patient obedience. Intellectually it 
betokens mental indifference : persons ruled by it take things as they 
come, and pay no serious attention to anything. Physically its na- 
tives are usually short, and inclined to be stout. Their nature is 
peaceable, but their actions are largely influenced by their surround- 
ings. 

Concerning the occult application of the twelve signs, we learn that 
the four triplicities symbolize the four cardinal points of the universe, 
constituting the universal cross, sacred in all ages, and the four occult 
elements, Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. The Eiery Trigon corresponds 
to the eastern horizon at daybreak. Eire was undoubtedly the origin 
of all worlds, and from a fiery state they have gradually cooled, at 
length becoming inhabitable. The principle of heat, termed Caloric, 
sustains all living organisms. Eire represents courage, zeal, daring, and 
will ; in fact, it pertains to every kind of activity ; while on the higher 
or esoteric plane it signifies the very source of being, which is, .of 
course, spiritual. Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius correspond to the intel- 
lect, the emotions, and the offspring of the two when they are closely 
united. The Earthly triplicity stands for the frozen north, the symbol 
of crystallization : it is concerned with the mutual relations of solids, 
from which &re evolved form, proportion, and sound ; it also refers to 
all metals and metallic industries. Esoterically, Taurus, Virgo, and 
Capricorn correspond to patient effort, formation, and reformation, 
and the results" of these in distinct expressions of force, either on the 



502 



APPENDIX. 



upward or downward grade of action. The Airy triplicity represents 
the west, or the setting sun ; but this only gives promise of a new and 
brighter day. This triplicity deals with the higher qualities of the 
social, political, and priestly relations. Its esoteric significance is the 
one true science, the knowledge of life as spirit — the one enduring 
life of the entire universe. The Watery triplicity, symbolical of the 
south, signifies the polar opposite of the Earthy, and therefore repre- 
sents the liquefaction of crystals and all hard substances ; it expresses 
the union of opposites, the harmonious adjustment of contradictories. 
On the esoteric plane it denotes triumph over mundane obstacles, dif- 
ficulties vanquished, paradise regained. The reader is reminded that 
the four triplicities are but different sections of attributes within the 
human soul ; the twelve constellations reveal the mystery of Adam 
Kadmon, the archetypal man of the starry planisphere. We begin 
with fire and terminate with water. 

We here append a notice of the twelve precious gems, which corre- 
spond to the twelve signs, and are, therefore, according to astral sci- 
ence, respectively appropriate to be worn by persons born in the 
month named, as a magnetic talisman. 



Aries . . . 


March . 






Amethyst. 


Taurus . . . 


April . . 






. Agate. 


Gemini . . . 


May . . 






. Beryl (Crystal). 


Cancer . . . 


June . . 






Emerald. 


Leo .... 


July . . 






Ruby. 


Virgo . . . . 


August . 






Jasper. 


Libra . . . . 


September 






Diamond. 


Scorpio . . . 


October . 






Topaz. 


Sagittarius . . 


November 






Carbuncle. 


Capricorn . . 


December 






Onyx (Chalcedony) 


Aquarius . . 


January . 






Sky-blue Sapphire. 


Pisces . . . 


February 






Chrysolite. 



Having entered upon this subject of precious gems and their signifi- 
cance, we will only add our decided conviction that as colors and 
gems, of vivid hue especially, exert a marked influence both upon 
human beings and animals, and as we can suppose no outward form 
to originate without some spiritual impulse, we conclude that were 
more attention given to this subject, we might derive much valuable 



APPENDIX. 503 

i 
and practical information as a guide to dressing our bodies and fur- 
nishing our rooms according to our necessities. Certain it is that all 
persons are not influenced alike by gems and colors : those most agree- 
able to some cause annoyance to others. Dr. Babbitt, in " The Prin- 
ciples of Light and Color," enters very deeply into this theme ; and 
those who desire to pursue it to a length impossible in a work not ex- 
clusively devoted to that topic, would do well to peruse that learned 
volume. 

As we have no further space to follow out the line of thought sug- 
gested by " The Light of Egypt," — the second half of which is fasci- 
nating in the extreme, and deals with astrology more succinctly than 
we have ever seen that abstruse subject dealt with elsewhere, — we 
will conclude this lengthy, though incomplete, review by testifying to 
our own perfect agreement with the best views on astrology now being 
given to the world. As man contains all the planets and constellations 
within himself, or, at all events, man being the microcosm, there is 
no element without him which is not also within, it stands to reason 
that the wonderful occult sciences of the ancients, now being stripped 
of their mystical garb as rapidly as the public mind can benefit by the 
process, all end at the same grand point, and declare man to be the 
arbiter of his own fate, the creator of his own destiny. The essential 
germ of life we vaguely call the innermost spirit of man can expand 
its latent forces, in every instance, until human beings shall com- 
pletely dominate the earth, and be free to roam at will through the 
constellated fields of space, unhampered by any external limitation. 
True Theosophy is the knowledge of how to live above the senses, so 
as to make them serve the spirit in all things ; and this they will not 
do, so long as the pressure of material greed is allowed to make such 
heavy demands upon human thought and energy. To live in the world, 
and yet above being enslaved by it in anything, is to find the royal 
road to health and happiness. When we have found this way, and 
are walking in it, for us there will indeed be no more sin, sickness, or 
dying ; old things will have passed away, and all will have become 
new. Erom many different sources we may gather material to enrich 
our store, but, turn where we will, th% sa^ne great truth confronts 
us, — Man is the measure of the universe, and mind is the measure 
of man. 



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